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Wm, Preston Johnston 



Chief Executive Officer, 



-STOJ 



BOARD OF ADMINISTRATORS, 



^ONS- 



PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 



-JOFI- 



TUJ_ANE UNIVERSITY, 

yune 4tk, 1 88 J. 



f) 



NEW ORLEANS 



I ^^ A. W. HYATT, STATIONER AND PRINTER, 73 CAMP STREET.— 2o4(i6 

iHs^ 1883. *' 

— ' f .»_j!=rsi 



'S 



KSW TORg PUBL. LIBa. 
IN EXCHANGE. 



New Orleans, La., June 4th, 1883. 

To the Administrators of the 

Tulane Educational Fund: 

Gentlemen — At your request, I did myself the honor, on 
a former occasion, to define what I conceived to be the genera 
policy of your Board in carrying out the important trust 
imposed upon it by the terms of Mr. Tuhine's donation. This 
policy I understand to be the line of action adopted by the 
Board. As it was considered best, in view of the indeterminate 
condition of our funds and prospects, to await events, I have 
availed myself of the interval to formulate my ideas on the 
foundation of a great University in New Orleans, to which end 
all our efforts should tend, together with such practical 
suggestions as look to an early employment of our available 
means in carrying out Mr. Tnlane's intentions. I have now 
to ask your patient consideration of what must necessarily be 
a somewhat extended discussion of the matters before you for 
settlement. 

It is due to you and dne to myself to say that, though my 
experience as a practical educator has been long and varied, 
and I have given close personal attention to matters of uni- 
versity organization, my opportunities for observation have 
been somewhat circumscribed. Indeed, I may say that there is 
no absolutely thorough preparation for such a place as that to 
which you have called me until after the appointment is made. 
Previous preparation would be merely dilettante in such case, 
and evince unfitness, rather than fitness, for its actual work. 
In such a problem as that before us, the changing exigencies of 
the situation may require some modification of the views 
advanced, but I must claim for them that, within the horizon 
permitted to me, they have been deliberately reached after a 
very mature and careful consideration. 



2 

The first point to be considered is the scope of your work. 
The intentions of Mr. Tulane constitute the chart of your 
action. Fully and faithfully to carry out his wishes and inten- 
tions, I know to be the purpose of this Board. What they are 
will be found defined in his letter of donation. His property is 
therein given "for the promotion and encouragement of intel- 
lectual^ moral and industrial education among the white young 
persons in the Gity of ^N^ew Orleans, State of Louisiana, and for 
the advancement of learning and Utters^ the arts and sciences 
therein.'' He says: " By the term education, I mean to foster 
such a course of intellectual development as shall be useful and 
of solid worth, and not be merely ornamental and superficial. 
I mean you should adopt the course which, as wise and good 
men, would commend itself to you as being conducive to imme- 
diate ^raci?*caZ benefit, rather than theoretical possible advantage. 
I wish you to establish or foster institutions of a higher grade of 
learning where the young persons to be benefited shall, upon due 
examination, be found competent and qualified for admission, 
both by age and previous training, to receive the benefits of a 
more advanced degree of educational culture.''^ 

Such is Mr. Tulane's broad and comprehensive scheme of 
benevolence, the execution of which in detail' is left to your 
wisdom. It is to confer "intellectual, moral and industrial 
education." It is for " the advancement of learning and letters, 
the arts and sciences." It is to be " practical." And it is ' to 
establish institutions of a higher grade of learning," and to 
give "a more advanced degree of educational culture." Nothing- 
less than a University, on a very broad foundation, could even 
approximately perform these varied functions; and it is not, 
therefore, surprising that when the Board determined to estab- 
lish a University, their resolution met with Mr. Tulane's unquali- 
fied approval. What shall be the limits and character of this 
institution, is the question before you. 

A University, as I have said, was evidently included in the 



scope of Mr. Talaiie's plans. Biifc the " indastrial" education 
mentioned, " the immediate j^racif^ca? benefit" to be secured, the 
" higher grade of learning " to be looked to, all seem to contem- 
plate an institution which shall be adapted to the wants of our 
people, and which shall look to present, rather than remote, 
advantages 5 which, in a word, shall cover the whole ground of 
higher Mucation. In defining what this higher education is, we 
must look to the ordinary acceptation of the term among us. The 
broad distinction is between Elementary or Grammar School 
education, which is given to the whole mass of the people, and 
that which is higher. In a memoir, summarized for the United 
States Bureau of Education (Circular 3, 1874), from the Eules 
and Eegulations of the Higher Schools of Prussia, a work by 
Dr. L. Wiese, privy councillor, it is said : '' The secondary 
school differs from the elementary schools by a course of instruc- 
tion going beyond the immediate demands of every day life ; 
from the special school, by the more general character of the 
courses of instruction ; from the university, by its preparatory 
character. It has the special aim to give that sound basis of 
scientific and literary education which enables a man to partici- 
pate in solving the higher problems of life in church, state and 
society." It will thus be seen that in the Prussian system, which 
must be considered as at present the most logical and advanced, 
all education above the elementary school must be considered 
Higher Education. The secondary schools, of which Dr. Wiese 
speaks, include all forms of the Gj^mnasium and Real-School, 
the classical and scientific schools, which do the work of our 
American colleges and high schools combined. 

Disregarding, then, all subtleties of nomenclature. Higher 
Education embraces all education beyond what is elementary. 
It is a comprehensive term, and includes High School, Collegiate, 
University, Technical and Professional instruction. Resting 
upon the broad base of elementary education, it covers the 
whole wide area of human knowledge, and rises, through 



regular gradations, higher and higher, to the very utmost 
attainments of the human mind. No part of this wide field of 
usefulness is foreign to the purposes of the Tulane endowment; 
and it is left to your judgment how, where, and in what propoi- 
tions, it shall be applied in the City of New Orleans. The 
scope of your work, then, covers the whole ground of Higher 
Education, the only limitation upon your efforts being that of 
means. It will become you, therefore, to lay the ground plan of 
an institution, which shall, in the fullness of events, touch 
every branch and department of this Higher Education, foster= 
ing and developing them all. But while you thus wisely provide 
for the future, it is hoped that you will undertake to do no more, 
for the present, than the means in hand will fully justily ; with 
each enlargement of your resources extending your endeavors, 
till, under the providence of God, you are able to carry out 
successfully the entire scheme now projected for you. J 
conceive, therefore, that it is not premature to place before you 
the ideal for which we must strive, and at the same time make 
recommendations for as much as we can now safely attempt. 

Permit me before entering on this discussion to congratulate 
you on the characteristic prudence and wisdom displayed by 
Mr. Tulane in selecting the Higher Education of our people for 
his work of benevolence. Whether enlightenment and progress 
are best advanced by a system of common schools or by a Uni- 
versity — by extensive or intensive education — has long been a 
mooted question. Fortunately we are not called upon to settle 
it. Among civilized peoples it is not now so much a question 
whether elementary education is a right as whether it should 
not be made a compulsory duty. But the Higher Education is 
a privilege to be meted out by Government under varying con- 
siderations of expediency. Elementary education, therefore, is 
a function of the State, which alone has resources adequate to 
its performance. Individual efforts in aid of it are so dispro- 
portioned to its magnitude, and generally so diffused, as almost 



o 

necessarily to be wasted ; while the same influence and means 
concentrated on the more limited area of higher education might 
effect larger results. Mr. Tulane's bounty scattered in elementary 
education, would prove of small avail ; directed as it is upon a 
single object, it will become a tremendous engine of instruction. 
The University will have the lifting power of a hydraulic 
machine, because its forces are similarly exerted. 

It may be assumed as finally determined that our efforts for 
Higher Education will be through the medium and agency of a 
University. The first point to be considered, then^ is what 
should be the relation of this institution to the educational 
system of the State. The destruction of the war and the equally 
disastrous reconstruction which followed left every public and 
private interest in Louisiana in wreck and ruin. Order and 
prosperity have begun to emerge from the chaos; but no great 
and real progress can be achieved unless by a general enlighten- 
ment of the people. Louisiana unfortunately has attained the 
bad eminence of a larger proportion of illiterates, white as well 
as black, in her population than any other State except 
South Carolina There is but one remedy, education. Un- 
wise constitutional restrictions nullify and vitiate all at- 
tempts' at reform. An inadequate school fund is spread too 
thin to do any good. The State Universities are effectually 
shackled and muzzled. The ordinary agencies of education, 
common schools, high schools, colleges, universities, are drag- 
ging out a feeble and miserable existence. All interest in edu- 
cation languishes, and even the people who have enjoyed its 
benefits seem careless whether their children shall receive the 
very rudiments. The ingenuity of legislation seems to have 
been racked to prevent progress and development. But a kind 
Providence, bent on saving our people from the consequences of 
their own blindness and errors, comes to their aid. Inspiring 
the heart of an absent, but not forgetful, son of Louisiana with 
the lofty and sacred purpose of redeeming our people from the 



6 

bondage of ignorance, it has made the impossible possible. The 
beniiicence of one citizen supplies and makes amends for the 
mistakes, the apathy and the poverty of the community. A 
University has been set on foot which, if it can be carried to 
completion in the spirit of its founder, will be a live institution, 
full of light and energetic for good. 

The educational system of any people to be complete must 
constitute a finished and homogeneous structure. It should be 
a pyramid with the common schools at its base, and the' Univer- 
sity at its , apex. Such is the much admired German system, 
which is consistent with itself, and complete in all its parts. 
Whether then our University owes its existence to legislative 
wisdom or private munificence, intended as it is to perform an 
important part in the public education of the State, it should 
recognize fully its relations to every other part of the educa- 
tional system and seek to bring each and all into that harmony 
which will insure improvement. It is both good policy and 
wise administration to plant the University on the popular 
affections and interests, and to aid public instruction wherever 
it can be safely done. Of course, the fundamental principle of 
such a policy is to make the benificence of our work as real, 
expansive and manifest as human fallibility will permit. 

In the first report I made as President of the Louisiana 
State University, in December, 1880, I set forth the mutual 
interdependence of all the parts of our educational system and 
the urgent need of help to our white population in securing its 
blessings. The following was my language : 

" On the free school system of education rests the hope of the 
development, if not of the preservation of our material interests and 
of our Uberties in the United Htates. This is especially true of the 
South, and in no State has it greater significance than in Louisiana. 
The control of the most sacred rights of property, of the subtlest 
questions of morals and law, of the most delicate functions of polity, 
and of the fundamentals of civilization itself, are now, perforce, 
entrusted to the masses, largely made up of ignorant freedmen. It 
behooves the State, as the conservator of society, to use every power 



and energy to enlighten tliis dense and dangerous darkness. It should 
extend to its colored citizens the benefits of education, and lead them 
to a higher and purer plane of intelligence. But it should remember 
that it must depend chiefly upon the white race, with its immemorial 
right of leadership, for its ability to keep pace in the march of civili- 
zation with happier and more favored commonwealths. It should not 
withhold, or stint its hand in giving, to ec^uip these of its sons for the 
struggle of life. 

" To this end common schools should invite the humblest of its 
citizens to learn those elements of knowledge which should be the 
general heritage of freemen. Higher schools should receive generous 
State aid, so that those willing to make sacrifices should not be without 
the opportunity of advancing along the rugged path of knowledge ; 
and, crowning the public school system as a cap-sheaf, the most fruitful 
gift of this benignant harvest of learning, should be the University. 
A part of that system and its culmination, the University should open 
its doors freely to all who aspire to the higher education. It ought not 
to usurp the functions of the Primary School or the High School, but 
should reserve its energies for those who have patientlj'^ undergone 
their preliminary training. These it should foster with the most 
sedulous care, and the University should be the nursery of the teachers 
of our public schools. From its walls yearly should go forth men fully 
equipped by training, general information, and special instruction in 
the best methods of the Normal School, which has its greatest efficiency'' 
as a branch in a University. These men should constitute that army 
of school-masters who are to vanquish ignorance in Louisiana." 

I have repeatedly urged the same views ; but it has become 
apparent to all that with the prevalent apathy and existing 
constitutional limitations, the Universities, however useful other- 
wise, cannot occupy this position. The Tulane University will 
have the ability, and therefore will have the right and should 
feel the duty, of assuming the leadership in public education in 
the State. Such primacy must come from concession, not mere 
claim. We must show ourselves worthy of it by affiliation with 
every branch and department of instruction in the common- 
wealth, by becoming the centre and rallying point of educa- 
tional progress, by welcoming and honoring merit wherever 
found, and by enlisting in this grand movement against the 
realm of darkness every element of moral worth, liberal thought 
and intellectual activity in Louisiana. Mr. Tulane's pious 
intentions have placed his Administrators on a strong vantage 



8 



grouud, and wisdom, benificeiice and energy should characterize 
every act of their stewardship. 

■ To carry out the foregoing views I propose the following 
measures : 

1st. By the grant of a free scholarship in each representa- 
tive district in the State. 

2d. By free scholarships to the youth of New Orleans, and 
by relieving the City, if her authorities concur, from the burthen 
of the Public Male High School. 

3d. By free scholarships to meritorious private institutions 
of liigh grade. 

4th. By offering our young men not only the best classical 
and scientific education, but to such as prefer it, practical 
instruction in technical, industrial and business branches. 

5th. By popular lectures, on which subject more will be 
said in the course of this discussion. 

6th. By doing, or at least attempting, something toward 
the industrial development of the State, bringing science to the 
aid of agriculture and manufactures. This I hope to see effected 
through the establishment of a Sugar Laboratory as our initial 
step. 

Taking up these points setiathn, T recommend : 

1st. That we offer to each and every representative and 
senatorial district in the State a free scholarship to be filled by 
its member in the General Assembly, with a bona fide citizen 
and resident of such district w ho can comply with the established 
requirements for admission. Such a gratuity ought to allay 
all local and sectional jealousies and afford convincing proof 
that, though located here and its fund applied here, the Uni- 
versity desires to extend its benefits to the most distant parishes. 
No narrow bound should confine the flow of Mr. Tulane's 
benevolence ; and the people of Louisiana should feel that this 
fund and this Board have been created, not for private ends or 
mere local advantages, but for a great public purpose. 



9 

2d. In the same spirit I propose that free tuition be granted 
to graduates of the City public schools, and that forty scholar- 
ships be opened to their competition. 

Further, that we should receive other duly prepared pupils 
from the City Schools, nominated by the City, at an annual fee 
of $4.0 each. The present cost of the High School is $8000 or 
$10 000 per annum. It has about eighty pupils, who, therefore, 
cost the City something over $100 each. With the same number of 
pupils, the outlay of the City would only leach $1600 per annum, 
which would be a great saving to this tax-burthened community. 

8d. There is one factor in our great educational problem 
which is too often ignored: I mean our meritorious private 
schools. Instead of regarding them as fellow-laborers, the public 
school system, where sufficiently energetic, is put in motion, 
like some huge machine, unconscious of their existence, and 
they are crushed out as aliens and foes instead of co-workers. 
Yet many, I may say, most of our brightest and soundest 
scholars have been trained in these schools. I trust that the 
Tulane University, so far from exerting this destructive energy, 
will foster and encourage whatever is worthy and established, 
whether public or private in form. I suggest that our recogni- 
tion be cordial and practical, and that a liberal grant of free 
scholarships be offered to the leading schools, academies and 
colleges hei'e and elsewhere as prizes of merit, with all other 
facilities we can afford in furtherance of their work. 

4th. The conception of education has broadened of late 
years. It is perceived that it is a science, and one whose 
applications should be extended not only to the (so called) 
learned professions as formerly, and beyond these to scientific 
avocations, such as engineering, architecture, etc, but also to 
other comnR'jcial and industrial pursuits. It was easy to see 
that the same training was not suited to all. More slowly it 
was discovered what training was suited to each ; and at last, it 
may be said, industrial and business education is placed upon a 



10 

logical and iatioDal basis. There is no lack of excellent models, 
which would, of course, have to be adapted to our local needs 
and means. At Baton Eouge I initiated a course of instruction, 
both " liberal and practical," looking to the preparation of 
young men for the life of planter or plantation mechanic. 
Under the judicious and patient instruction of Prof Eandolph, 
this became a most valuable feature of the institution. What I 
propose here is an expansion of this branch of instruction, so as 
to embrace good courses of Civil, Hydraulic and Dynamical 
Engineering, which will fit young men for control in the machine 
shop, the railroad, the sugar house, or. in our drainage system. 
Workshops for instruction in wood and metal working, and 
complete courses of Drawing would, of course, be necessary. 
This is not the place to enter into details, and so much is stated 
only to indicate an outline of what I regard as advisable. 

We may hope in the same spirit to offer to young men who 
intend to pursue a business career a training, practical and yet 
liberal, and both broad and thorough. 

5th. In discussing the proper work of a TTniversity, the 
motive and methods of public and popular lectures will be 
given more appropriately than here. Suffice it to say now that 
it brings us into the closest and most pleasant relations with 
the knowledge-loving portion of the community. 

6th. In regard to the establishment of a Sugar Laboratory, 
I must briefly say that it a subject which has kept hold on me 
ever since I came to Louisiana. With the smallest encourage- 
ment from any source, I would have had such a Laboratory in 
full operation long ago. But practical men are very apt to 
underestimate the power of science in aid of material civiliza- 
tion, because it receives its rewards neither in money nor 
applause. Nevertheless, its help is real and substantial ; its 
conservative and economic power in the way of preventing 
waste of time, money and ' material is enormous ; and its sug- 
gestions and discoveries are the milestones of progress. Such 



11 



a Laboratory conducted by men of genias and science miglit 
revolutionize the sugar industry in Louisiana A discovery or 
improvement in the manufacture or manipulation ol sugar, which 
would cheapen its production one-half a cent per pound, would 
save Louisiana more than a million of dollars yearly. A com- 
parison of the cost of such a laboratory with its possible bene- 
fits ought to justify its expediency to any rational mind. 
Twenty-five hundred dollars ($2500) would supply the necessary 
apparatus. As much more would adequately carry it on for a 
year. The whole sugar planting community would appreciate 
our effort as the evidence of an honest and practical interest in 
its welfare. 

It is by such measures that I propose to bring the Univer- 
sity into close and vital relations with the educational system 
and with the community at large. One other point I omit here, 
the establishment of a Normal Department or College in con- 
nection with the University. This I can discuss more appro- 
priately in submitting the plan of organization of the University. 

I cannot deny that these designs seem large, when under- 
taken in addition to the ordinary work we shall be compelled to 
pertbrm. They can only be carried out by the concentration of 
all the resources for higher education in this city. This is a 
matter of profound interest, and merits your earnest attention. 
One of our Administrators, Mr. E. H. Farrar, in a very able 
address delivered at the Commencement of the University of 
Louisiana, June 30th, 1880, has dealt with this subject with a 
carefulness of research and vigor of statement which carry 
conviction in every sentence. A single passage will exhibit his 
view. 

He says : 

" In the first place, the policy pursued by the State in the organi- 
zation of institutions of learning has been radically defective. Instead 
of being the policy of concentration, it has been the policy of diffusion 
and dispersion. Innumerable colleges and academies have been 
established in remote rural regions. Their endowment funds being 



12 



,mall the neighboring populations being too sparse lo suppor them ^ 

and be ng ^"thout th^t fame and etfieienoy which draw stud..,, tsr 
tfer ttey lingered a few years and died of inanition. It is p.ep . - 
: to gL eW parish a ....ana e^^^^^^^^ 

^Z^aJ:^JZ sl^ools --een gatheredinto one he^.^^^^^^ 
laid a^the foundation of son. <^^r:^, ^:^in^ a 
rtrh^lfpo^-llS^o tS ::-f the .and - -;~ -t 

civ govern e":t, it is the essential element of success ni education^ 
ItttWs which has made the great universities of the wor d, and tins 
which barnmde tbexn the most powerful instruments and engines of 
. progress and civilization." 

The opinions which Mr. Farrar has so forcibly conveyed are 
capable of illustration from a variety of sources. In this line of 
thought, I myself used the following language in a report ol the 
Louisiana State University . 

" In a rich and mighty commonwealth like New York or Massa- 
chusetts it is wise to seek the utmost perfection in resu Us by a d sision 
even to minuteness, of labor and of educational functions. But with 
ulthe case is entirely difierent. We are poor. It is as much as this 
St^te can do to keep the smallest number of institutions with their 
heads above water. 

"Shall we then scatter and thus squander and dissipate • our 
resources and means among a number of feeble, struggling and 
impotent agencies, or concentrate them as much as possible and put at 
e7t one institution on a respectable footing ? From the oruier polic 
w^can hope nothing. If we can succeed in the latter, the htate can 
^o on dispensing her beniflcence as she feels a growing ability to do so ; 
and I forTe wLld not grudge the largest liberality to any and every 
educational institution or agency in this State, now existing <,r which 
may hereafter be created." 

There cau hardly be a doabt in anybody's mind that in this 
day of large enterprises an accumulation of forces at given 
centres is absolutely necessary in order to deal efficiently with 
the masses of men and material, or with the moral agencies, to 
be handled. We may dread the tremendous energy of enormous 
combinations of capital directed for mere personal ends, but the 
logic of the situation constrains us to grant them privileges. 



13 

Society has nothing to fear from an iDstitutiou of learning dedi- 
cated to the public welfare. What such an institution needs is 
capital proportioned to the manifold wants of an expanding 
civilization, and used with the same effectiveness which marks 
our business enterprises. As President Oilman stated in a 
recent address, '^It is no longer a question of tens, or even 
hundreds, of thousands of dollars : it is a qu-estion of millions." 
Yale College has an annual aggregate expenditure in all its 
departments of over $350,000. The aggregate expense account 
of Harvard University is $582,390 73. The endowment of 
Cornell University in 1881 was about $2,500,000, exclusive of 
Western lands of equal value. Eecently, one person has added 
$1,500,000 to this splendid foundation. President Gilmau esti- 
mates the endowments available to the students of Johns- 
Hopkins at $9,000,000. The property held by Columbia College, 
New York, is said to be worth $20,000,000, yet it is at this 
moment asking an increase of endowments. There are other 
institutions which approximate these in the magnitude of their 
revenues. Yet all are approaching the public in forma pauperis, 
and urging want of means for the enormous work to be done. 
Thus, you will perceive that the utmost height of our reasonable 
expectations leaves us far from foremost in this race, and that a 
large accumulation of means is requisite to enable us to rival the 
first-class Universities of the East. 

The great cities of New York, Boston and Baltimore are the 
seats of three of the greatest of the American Universities. 
Other large cities, such as Philadelphia, New Haven, St. Louis, 
Rochester and Richmond are, in like manner, seats of learning. 
Berlin and Vienna have the greatest Universities in Germany, 
and cities, not villages, are the natural sites of the leading 
institutions of learning. The mediaeval University grew up 
around the cathedral, when the clergy were the only learned 
class, and cities represented armed force more than commercial 
activity. All that has changed. With the emancipation of 



14 

thought, intellectual energy finds half a hundred avenues beyond 
the pale of the church. The forum, the laboratory, the railroad, 
the mart, the bank, invite our keenest intellects and most 
earnest spirits to share in contests where mind rules. The 
leaders are, as a rule, all men of aspiration — children of light — 
who desire the improvement of the race. They share in the 
movement of mind, and the spread of education, and their homes 
are in the cities. The Astors founded a library ; Peter Cooper, 
his Institute ; the Vanderbilts and Johns Hopkins, Lawrence, 
Sheffield and Stevens, the Universities and Institutes, which 
bear their names; and Mr. Paul Tulane, a merchant of this 
city, now adds another star to this constellation. Without 
derogating from the quiet virtues of a country life, it is not too 
much to say that cities are the centres of light. Cloisters were 
sought when monks were the only teachers, and they may be 
adapted now to certain classes of minds and men ,• but those 
who are to struggle in the strenuous warfare of life in this age 
and country must draw nearer to a real focus of light, and 
catch their inspiration where the power and activity of thought 
and the radiance of mental illumination are most intense. We 
can afford to dismiss the objection often urged, that a city does 
not suit as the location for a University- 
There should be at least one such in the Lower Mississippi 
Valley, and New Orleans is its natural seat. To make the 
Tulane University the representative institution of this region, 
you must make it pre-eminent, and put it beyond rivalry. To 
do this we must have the largest endowments, confer the greatest 
benefits on our communities, and conform most perfectly to the 
true ideal of a complete University. 

If I have seemed to urge upon you somewhat strongly the 
policy of concentration, its paramount importance must be my 
apology. To carry it out, I repeat the recommendations of my 
first report : 

1st. The University of Louisiana has in its High School 



15 

and Academic Departments 250 students, and in its Law 
and Medical Departments 244 more— nearly 500 in all. This, in 
itself, is a good beginning. It has very valuable buildings and 
real estate, worth probably a quarter of a million of dollars. It 
has, independent of the Law and Medical Departments, an 
income from tuition of some SlO 000, and there is the annuity 
from the State of $10,000 ; besides its obligation to keep the 
buildings in repair as State property. The State has already 
signified its approval of a concentration of its institutions, by 
the junction of the Louisiana State University with the Agri- 
cultural and Mechanical College, under one charter and organi- 
zation. Public sentiment would probably approve of our union 
with our sister institution here. 

2d. We have good grounds for going before the Govern 
ment of Louisiana, and asking for the St. Louis Hotel building 
as a donation, or on terms equivalent thereto. For several 
years it has been an unsightly rookery, falling to decay and an 
expense to the State. Even speculators have been afraid to 
touch it except at nominal prices. In our hands, with suitable 
repairs and alterations, and with a probable expenditure of 
$50,000, we could make it the most magnificent college edifice, 
without exception, in the United States. In its ample rooms 
and halls, we could provide for all the workshops and labora- 
tories needed for scientific and industrial education, for a great 
library and for museums to illustrate the progress and achieve- 
ments of knowledge, and for offices for all those adjunct, literary 
and scientific societies, which act as auxiliaries in the advance 
of education. A judicious arrangement of its offices for rent 
might provide an income sufficient to ji^ay the current expenses 
of the building. As a University building, it might thus become 
a grand Educational Exchange. 

3d. The absorption of the City High School, as suggested, 
would not add to our wealth indeed, but it would materially aid 
our strength, and carry out the purposes of our founder. 



16 

Supposing these plans carried out, or, at least, that we are 
ready to put our University in operation, it becomes proper to 
consider what are its legitimate functions, and what work it 
must perform. While the whole realm of human knowledge is 
its field, and its mastery and transmission the limit of activity, 
a more specific analysis is here necessary. 

A ITniversity should combine in its work three objects : the 
higher education of the young, the extension of the area of 
knowledge by original research, investigation and discovery, 
and the elevation of the public tone and culture. The Tulane 
Administrators should keep all these things in view. But, 
undoubtedly, the first; the higher education of the white young 
persons of this city and State, is the most important and direct 
function to be performed, and, to a certain extent, includes the 
other two. The Faculty should, as far as possible, possess a 
knowledge of the entire body of the science, letters and phi- 
losophy of the age, and should feel their mission duly to impart 
this to the next generation. To pass the torch of knowledge 
from hand to hand is the most sacred obligation of an institution 
of learning. A faculty is necessarily a body of teachers. It 
may be, and ought to be, more, but the professors must be good 
teachers, or they are nothing. 

The second function of a University is the extension of the 
area of human knowledge. Upon the discoveries of the closet 
and laboratory, often giudgiugly acknowledged and rewarded, 
rest the most brilliant and useful inventions and upward 
impulses in arts and arms and all the aspects of modern civili- 
zation. Appealing, as invention and original research do, to 
the imagination of a wider audience than the University walls 
contain, they are a source of immense prestige and popular 
favor. The institution so fortunate as to possess a strong corps 
of competent and zealous investigators immediately takes a place 
in the front ranks. When it performs well this function of the 
extension of human knowledge, there is at once accorded to it 



17 

its patent of nobility in the peerage of intellect. This considera- 
tion cannot, therefore, be neglected, in laying out the work of 
the University and selecting its faculty. 

The best results in this direction are attained by bringing 
together in its faculty men of capacious and original intellects. 
They should be thoroughly trained and educated in their calling, 
equipped with proper apparatus and appliances, and lifted above 
penury by adequate incomes, so that they may have means and 
leisure for a proper performance of their duties. 

But it may be supposed that this object so grand in its 
results, and so diverse apparently from the work of teaching, 
would interfere with the usefulness of the professor in that 
direction. On the contrary, however, the thinker or discoverer, 
who also teaches, performs both duties better. Compelled to 
formulate his thought or project and to submit it to the criticism 
of other minds, he detects any latent errors and finds the 
remedy. On the other hand, the spirit of inquiry in the breast 
of the professor communicates its own enthusiasm to the learner, 
and the circle of thinkers rapidly widens. Professor Von Sybel, 
speaking of the concurrence of French and English sentiment in 
commendation of the German Universities, says: " If we ask 
what it is which they admire most, which seems to them most 
worthy of imitation, the invariable answer will be, 'the constant 
and close union of research and education.'" He adds: "Our 
Univeisities are praised because they are not mere schools, but 
workshops of science." 

The third object to be borne in mind is the function of the 
University in raising the level of culture in tho community. 
Tliis is done in part unconsciously, ^nd without any special 
direct effort The presence in a community of a body of able 
and learned luc ii, in daily contact with its people, will effect a 
gradual amelioration in tone and culture. Every alumnus who 
leaves its walls raises the average, and becomes himself a mis- 
sionary of the intellectual life. All this is clearly evinced by 



18 

comparing any college town with other villages not thus favored. 
But while learning shines with this reflected light, there are 
other more direct and rapid means of intellectual illumination 
for the people. 

The bare offer of knowledge has no attraction to the mass 
of mankind. It is nauseous rather than otherwise, and has to 
be sweetened and diluted to be accepted. StilL the shelves of a 
free public library contain many powerful, though silent teach- 
ers. It is hard to estimate the influence of a great library on 
the community ; it is incalculable. We all* admit the value of 
books and reading in forming the character of a boy or a man. 
We have all seen how a good library will reflne a family for 
generations by the aroma of culture it imparts. With wider 
sway, the public library casts its rays into the garrets and alleys 
of a great city, and lights the way and brightens the toil of the 
poor scholar and aspiring artisan. To do this, it must be open, 
inviting and valuable. A University library should be the 
workshop and armory of the students, and here, I hope, of the 
public also. Too many are cefneteries where the masters of 
thought, embalmed and coflined, are laid away like Egyptian 
mummies for a sleep of centuries. President Eliot says of the 
Harvard Library, that it has "a profound effect upon the 
instruction given at the University, as regards both substance 
and method ; it teaches the teachers." I cannot go so far as to 
say with some, that " the library is the best University ;" for it 
cannot of itself enforce its own methods. There is no substitute 
for a live man in teaching. But it is a most powerful and indis- 
pensable auxiliary. Employed to its utmost capacity of useful- 
ness by a skilful librarian and zealous instructors, a properly 
equipped University library will be one of the most efiicient 
agencies for educating this whole community, as well as our 
regularly enrolled students. To illustrate our present dearth, I 
may state that the public libraries of this city will not amount 
to 40,000 volumes, including the State Law Library, very valu- 



19 

able indeed and containing 26,000 volumes, principally law 
books, but of little interest to the general public. If provided 
with books in the same proportion as Boston, we should have 
400,000 volumes. We should bend our energies toward supply- 
ing this deficiency. But I must repeat that when we obtain a 
good library, it will be of little use without a good librarian. 
You want a man who knows books, knows how to use them, and 
knows how to teach others to use them. He should be learned 
in books and about books. He should be a guide to student^, 
and the friend of readers. There is a public, as well as a private, 
hospitality. The reader must feel himself a welcome and hon- 
ored guest. Make your University library the resort of the 
philosophy, the imagination and the keen spirit of inquiry of 
this quick minded population, and you will soon convert our 
people into a reading community, a thinking community, a 
community powerful by virtue of its intellectual energy. The 
boast of Themistocles was not ignoble. '' I cannot play the 
lute," said he, '' but I can change a feeble city into a great one." 

What has been said of a library, applies in their sphere to 
the museums and art galleries of a University which afford the 
best possible object teaching in the arts and sciences, and prove 
a perpetual spur to the curiosity and interest of the public. 

But, perhaps, the most direct method of reaching the unin- 
formed and undisciplined public mind is by popular lectures. 
If these are conducted by able and skillful men, they convey 
enough of science and culture to awaken the spirit of inquiry in 
many breasts, and, even where this is not attained, the mere 
information diffused abroad is no insignificant matter. Of course 
there are communities exceedingly difticult to reach on these 
lines, and this is said to be one of them ; but the apathy is a 
reason for the effort. A series of brilliant lectures sustained by 
the University for a single season would produce a marked 
effect upon the social aspects of life in New Orleans. One cause 
which prevents people from attending lectures is the cost ; those 



20 

willing to attend being often cramped in means. Another 
cause why they do not attend is that they have no guaranty Mi at 
the lecturer has any message worth listening to. He may be a 
scientist or a charlatan, a genius or a twaddler. The imprimatur 
of the University would answer this objection. Our guaranty 
would satisfy the public. There is a difference, too, between an 
occasional single lecture; which attracts little attention, no matter 
how gifted and eloquent the speaker, and a well constructed 
series of lectures which will after a while enlist the interest of 
the intelligent. An isolated address makes scarce a ripple on 
the surface of society ; but it is hoped that a number of brilliant 
and able appeals to the understanding of our people may divide 
their interest, sharing it with the theatre and opera, so that, at 
last, lecture going may become a habit — a fashion, if you will. 
It will be a good habit, a useful fashion, if it enables intellect 
to assert its share in giving tone to this community. 

Such a systematic effort to raise the level of popular intelli- 
gence is a direct appeal to the favor of the good and wise. It is 
a legitimate appeal, and often meets the reward of substantial 
aid from rich and public spirited men, whose sympathies and 
interest in education have been aroused and shaped bj^ it. 

This, then, is the three-fold work of the University : 1st, the 
education of its students; 2d, the discovery of new truth and 
the accumulation of scientific facts; 3d, the enlightenment of 
the masses of the people. 

The agencies required in the University to perform this 
work are, 1st. A suitable business organization with the ofiicials 
requisite for administration. 2d. A University Faculty, in 
charge of the educational branch. 3d. Good plans of organi- 
zation and wise methods. 4th. Adequate equipment. Under 
these four heads we can consider the whole subject. 

The business organization of the Tulane Educational Fund 
does not come within the scope of this inquiry. The Adminis- 
trators have judiciously distributed their duties to appropriate 



21 

committees, and have taken all proper precautions for the wise, 
safe and careful administration of their trust They have ap- 
pointed Mr. P. N. Strong, Secretary and Treasurer, and myself 
chief executive officer, a sufficient provision for present needs. 
When the educational branch is put in operation with suitable 
buildings, you will need for the immediate care of the University 
buildings; and supervision of repairs, police and fire precau- 
tions, of light, heat and water supply, and of ventilation, sewer- 
age, cleanliness, etc., a proctor or janitor, with suitable servants- 
The proctor should be a trustworthy and intelligent man. 

It will also be necessary to appoint, at an early date, a 
librarian who could also act as secretary of the Faculty, for a 
time at least. Both are laborious^ and responsible positions. 
They might be filled by one man, fitted by education, special 
preparation and personal aptitudes for the work. His relations 
with the Board, the President and the Faculty are confidential . 
His knowledge of both the inside and the outside of books, their 
intrinsic and their commercial value, should be considerable ; 
and he should have an acquaintaince with both bibliography 
and library work and methods. As secretary, he would have in 
his hands, the care of records, supply of stationery, blanks and 
forms ; advertising and the distribution of catalogues and infor. 
mation; general correspondence ; and the reception, matricula- 
tion and record of each student. With such a variety of colle- 
giate duties, any other than a skilled man would be in the way, 
and the Board would, I trust, be willing to give such a man 
proper compensation. 

The instruction, discipline and management of the Univer- 
sity should be under the charge of the President and Faculty. I 
have given some thought to the title of your chief executive 
officer, and have concluded to recommend to you the appellation, 
" President of the University." This is the title used at Har- 
vard. Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Johns-Hopkins and 
Washington and Lee Universities, and in nine out of ten of the 



22 

colleges aud universities of the country, and a change in it 
would indicate some anomaly in our organization which does 
not exist. The only objection is, that confusion might arise in 
some minds between this office and that of President of the 
Administrators, but as all these other institutions have govern 
ing boards with presidents, it is manifest that the objection is 
fanciful. 

I come now, gentlemen, to that matter which I regard as Of 
paramount importance to the success of the University, I mean 
the appointment of its faculty. For, unless this is done wisely 
and well, all else is of no avail. You will have the shell, but it 
will be an empty one. 

The most important duty to be performed by you in the 
organization of the University is the selection of its professors. 
Consider what a University is. Its prime object is to educate 
the young. Teaching is its business. You have an educational 
machine, it is true, which I would not undervalue. But a 
machine is nothing without the man behind it; and the more 
powerful and delicate the mechanism, the more skillful should 
be the engineer. Not buildings, books, apparatus, trust funds, 
nor endowments constitute a University. They go to make up 
the body, indeed, with its food and raiment; they are necessary 
to its existence; but the vital organism, the living soul, subsists 
in the men who compose its corporation and faculty. On the 
wisdom and fidelity of its Governing Board, and the ability of 
the faculty depend the fame and usefulness of the University 
itself. By these will its merits be measured with almost absolute 
exactness. Mind must control. Every day we see how a power- 
ful intellect and noble character can dignify a feeble or ungainly 
frame. Conform our University to this analogy in man. Bestow 
upon it an able, learned, honorable faculty. . Fill it with gifted 
men, in whom moral elevation, unselfish enthusiasm and intel- 
lectual ability work, with a harmonious will, to definite ends. 
With such a faculty, we cannot fail ; without it, we can have no 



23 

complete success. Such men we must have. The world knows 
their value. Educated people place their children where they 
will receive the impress of great men. Secure such, and they 
will retain here the youths now sent away : they will create that 
atmosphere of culture, in which education can breathe and 
thrive; and they will give that dignity and standing to the pro- 
fession of teaching, which it now lacks here. 

In order to secure such a faculty as that just depicted, the 
greatest care and conscientiousness will be necessary. 1 take it 
for granted that upon your chief executive officer will be 
devolved the responsibility of recommending to you a faculty, 
and that your selection will be guided by his advice. Looking 
simply to his own convenience, almost any reasonable man 
would be glad to be free trom such a responsibility ; and for 
myself I can truly say, that it is only as an unavoidable duty 
that I would accept it. But I have been too long connected with 
educational institutions not to realize fully that success depends 
largely upon a definite plan executed by a single will, with all 
the professors co operating in perfect harmony. Of such an 
educational machine, the president is the engineer, and very 
slight defects of tact, or temper or executive ability on his part 
will greatly disturb its action. You have often heard it said 
that a bad plan of battle well fought is better than a good plan 
badly fought. This is simply to say that men are more than 
methods; and it is truer in education than in war, since its 
agencies are mental not material, and its object is not destruc- 
tion, but creation and development. To secure a satisfactory 
adjustment of their respective claims by a reference of them to 
the members of a faculty closely resembles the result of a politi- 
cal caucus. You have log-rolling, a compromise, and some make- 
shift arrangement satisfactory to nobody. An ordinary faculty- 
meeting is very apt to degenerate into a mere debating society. 
What is needed is one plan, and one will with combined action. 
An able executive head, invested with ample authority, and with 



24 

lieutenants or professors actin<^ in perfect accord with him, can 
achieve much under great disadvantages. But it is evident that 
to secure such perfect accord, to obtain this requisite harmony in a 
faculty, it must be selected by the chief, whose will it is to 
execute. Speaking to practical business men, it is not necessary 
to dwell upon this point. If the Administrators of the Tulane 
Educational Fund agree with me in these views, 1 shall not 
shrink from the responsibility, and I am willing to be judged by 
the results. If they think otherwise, it would not be just to 
hold me responsible for vital matters over which I would not 
have control. 

But, whether the selection of professors be entrusted to 
me or not, there are certain fixed principles which should govern 
the Tulane Administrators in their choice, which cannot be 
departed from without serious detriment to their work. They 
are the rules by which I propose to be guided in my recommen- 
dations and I, therefore, do myself the honor of now laying 
them before you. 

1. The first landmark for a Board to set up in choosing its 
faculty is that this choice is a trust imposed upon it, and not a 
personal privilege. The welfare of the institution is to be 
regarded first, last, and all the time, and no other consideration 
should be allowed to intecfere with it in any manner whatever. 
The merit of the candidate, or, to be more exact, his absolute 
fitness for the place should be the sole moving reason for his 
appointment. For the Administrators to approach this important 
question in the best frame of mind, they miist resolve to divest 
themselves of all narrow views and personal ends. No selfish 
or partisan interest, preference, or prejudice should intrude. 
On this point, I cannot insist too strongly. Nepotism is the 
bane of ail great organizations, especially of educational founda- 
tiouo, and has been the ruin of many. It is the most insidious 
of public vices, because its aspects are so amiable, its arguments 
so speciouS; and its pretences so plausible. We say to ourselves, 



25 

" other things being equal, why should I not choose my friend?" 
But other things never are equal. There are always sufficient 
determining reasons without this, which if allowed to weigh at 
all is an overruling one. Our friend should be put on just the 
same level as any other candidate, and be tried by the same 
tests and standards. Unless this rule is made absolute, any 
faculty will become a mere nest of patronage. In all recom- 
mendations to this Board, I expect to be governed by this con- 
sideration, and I feel confident that the wisdom and justice of 
every Administrator will respect the motive, and sustain me 
personally and officially in the position. 

Catholicity in choice follows as a corollary from such a 
resolution. I^arrowness and provincialism are but varied forms 
of the egotism which we all reprehend. They are dangers to 
which, as Southerners, our history makes us peculiarly liable. 
We must guard against them the more carefully, because their 
roots are in the best instincts of our nature. But conformity to 
a creed or party confers no title to leadership in the wider 
realm of human knowledge. The range of our selection should 
be coterminous with the bounds of science, scholarship and 
culture in Europe and America. Indeed, some of our best 
educators have been brought from abroad, and the names of 
Agassiz, Guyot, McCosh and Mallet will readily occur to you. 

The catholicity which induces a wide range in the selection 
of professors gives you larger liberty of choice. It brings into 
one faculty the ablest graduates of different first-class universi- 
ties, each with the ripest fruits of his own system; and from a 
comparison of views and methods a higher ideal is evolved. 
This is an advantage which a new institution has over those 
older establish meats whose traditions limit their choice to their 
own alumni. 

After what has been said it is hardly necessary to add that 
little or no importance should be attached to alleged, or sup- 
posed, local or political influences. They are not proper tests or 



26 

qualificatious for an academic chair," and the candidate who 
offers them as such, usually has little else to offer, and is con- 
demned Qut of his own mouth. The claim is too often the plea of 
demagoguery in behalf of quackery, and, when put to trial, 
proves utterly futile. 

2. Having thus established the fitness of the candidate as 
the sole ground of choice, and guarded against all improper re- 
strictions, upon its freedom, the next thing to consider is, in 
what this fitness consists. 

(a.) The first and most important qualification of a teacher 
is integrity of character. In this I include moral soundness 
courage, truth, purity, self-resfject, and honorable elevation of 
thought and feeling ; the traits, in fine, which make and mark a 
gentleman. Add to these tact, good temper, symi)athy, and, 
most of all, justice, and you have an ideal teacher, so far as 
morale is concerned. It seems a very high ideal, but I have seen 
it as often under the humble garb of the schoolmaster as in any 
other condition in life. There is no class of persons who pursue 
unselfish ends, with more enthusiasm and devotion to ideas of 
duty. 

Too much stress cannot be laid upon integrity, as above 
defined ; because the pupil unconsciously, but surely, takes tone 
and color from the master. Low-bred, immoral, intriguing 
teachers will debauch and demoralize any corps of students. 
On the other hand a noble life stamps itself indelibly upon its 
disciples. It was the character, even more than the intellect, of 
Socrates, which made Plato and Platonism ; and Arnold, Head- 
master of Eugby, will mark an era in educational progress, 
when Arnold the historian is read no more. 

(b. ) Ability is the word by which I prefer to characterize 
the intellectual eminence which should mark a great professor. 
At the bottom of it lie intellectual soundness, good sense, mental 
equilibrium, a more solid basis of usefulness than qualities 
seemingly more brilliant. Ability consists in that group of 



27 

qualities which distinguish the mau who does his work in the 
world well from the man who does it poorly. The qualities 
which make up abilitj^ in a professor are talents, training, 
knowledge, and didactic force or effectiveness in teaching. 
Talents are various. Among the chief are grasp and vigor of 
intellect, clearness of apprehension, facility in the acquisition of 
knowledge, retentiveuess, power in the presentation of thought, 
wit and eloquence, though there are also other important mental 
gifts. But ability implies more than the mere possession of tal 
ents ; it includes the power to use them efficiently. And this again 
requires that these talents should have been duly trained and 
disciplined by study and preparation under competent in- 
structors. The man of ability must have, too^ an ample store of 
knowledge, as material on which to draw. Tf to these he adds 
effectiveness as a teacher, dependent so largely on his moral 
constitution, he may be classed as a great professor ; and further 
extraordinary endowments may readily rank him among the 
very great professors, and even among very great men. 

A university will take rank according to the number and 
excellence of leading men in its faculty. It is not to be expected 
that all the highest gifts will be found without drawback in a 
single individual, or that exceptional men are in the market on 
easy demand. Just what qualities and manner of man are 
required in each place is a matter of the nicest judgment. Von 
Sybel, the great German Historian and educator, in an address 
on the German Universities, says, '' The government gathers the 
best scientific genius of all Germany as teachers at the Universi- 
ties;" and again, "The point to which attention is paid first and 
foremost in giving a position at a University is literary capabi- 
lity ; as regards pedagogical talent, one is satisfied if it is not 
entirely wanting ; the decisive point is the capacity of independ- 
ent scientific production. He who possesses this, will, it is 
thought, answer satisfactorily all the demands of higher acad- 
emical instruction. Thi^ shows in brief the leading principle of 



28 

the German Universities." Guarding the point of the different 
standard, aim and requirements of university instruction in 
Germany, and the work before us, which does demand didactic 
effectiveness, the foregoing quotation exhibits the tests by which 
scholars weigh and value a professor, and assign him his place. 
We must look to this canon in our selections. 

Such are our requirements, however, that what we need 
most of all is that a professor should be, by vocation and pro- 
fessional enthusiasm, a teacher, and above all things a teacher. 
If we can obtain thoroughly conscientious and competent teachers 
in studies chiefly disciplinary, like Latin, Greek, Mathematics* 
etc., where research is for us practically exhausted, we should be 
content. But there are other fields of knowledge unexplored 
which invite the labors of the most original and enterprising 
minds. These, also, we should secure without regard to sect or 
section, nationality or party affiliation. 

(c.) The standing of a University is determined by the 
intellectual force of its faculty. A single extraordinary man 
may confer merited distinction on a school. But the concen- 
trated lustre of a number of learned and eminent men is sure to 
give it rank and position among the great institutions. It is 
desirable, therefore, to enlist in our service not only men of 
ability, but men of established reputation. The prestige for 
which we must look should not be that popular notoriety, which 
is too often the badge of the charlatan, True scholarly prestige 
is the distinction conferred by the literary guild which controls 
the intellectual centres of the country. It is the recognition of 
scholarship by scholars. At present, unfortunately, the South is 
almost outside of this pale. It may be your privilege by creat- 
ing an intellectual centre in New Orleans to give us a voice in the 
council of sages, and to bring us within the circle of educational 
life and movement. As the prestige of its faculty has so high a 
value in determining the rank of an institution, it should be 



29 

allowed its full weight in deciding as to the fitness of a candi- 
date for an academic chair. 

(d.) After what has been said in regard to catholicity in the 
choice of our professors, it will not be amiss to call attention to 
the opposite pole of thought It is the special adaptation of the 
professor to his place. One who is able and worthy elsewhere 
might prove a failure here, from inability to conform to his sur 
roundings. A very good man in his own way might not be able to 
get along in Louisiana. Adaptation to environment is a prime law 
of well being. A man's invincible prejudice against us, or ours 
against him, might well make the task of reconciliation unprofit- 
able. We must look not merely for a fit man, but for the fittest. 
Hence, while we should not confine our selection to Southerners, 
or even to Americans, strong sympathy with us, or a calm, just 
temper, or great breadth of view is each in its way a recommen- 
dation as a partial guaranty of that power of adaptation which 
is so useful. Where there is reason to fear a want of adapta- 
bility, as in foreigners, young and unmarried men are to be pre- 
ferred, because they learn more readily to conform to new 
conditions. 

3. On what evidence should a decision be made as to the 
fitness of a candidate ? I have to repeat myself in saying that 
the reputation of a scholar rests on the opinions of the judi- 
cious, rather than on the passing breath of popular applause. 
In determining their qualifications we should be guided by the 
testimony and counsel of eminent authorities, not of laymen who 
have given but little thought to the subject The regular 
diplomas and degrees of the different universities and colleges 
have an ascertained value, well known to those who are accus- 
tomed to consider these questions. The testimonials and per- 
sonal endorsement of the leaders of thought in letters and science 
and philosophy have a still more specific value. Achievement, 
work accomplished, success as a teacher evidenced by brilliant 
and accomplished pupils, books embodying thought or research 



30 

and approved by the favorable criticism and judgment of com- 
petent persons ; these are among the surest criteria. 

In arriving at a decision, all the points mentioned should be 
taken together. Both integrity and ability, including talentS; 
training, knowledge, and didactic effectiveness, are to be fully 
considered. Prestige and adaptation are to be taken into ac- 
count. And, indeed; whatever bears on the fitness of the candi- 
date should be duly weighed according to the rules of sound 
judgment and common sense. With such precautions your de- 
cisions will stand. With a faculty thus constituted you will see 
the standard of higher education in Louisiana advanced, and 
our youth retained here as students, and sent forth equipped to 
grace every walk oi life; you will see the area of knowledge 
widened and new discoveries in the sciences and arts increasing 
our wealth and evincing our claims to intellectual eminence ; 
and finally you will see the City of New Orleans sharing in the 
general elevation of thought and sentiment produced by a 
higher culture and a greater extension of the blessings of 
education. 

7th. The plan of organization to be adopted for the Tulane 
University, depends on so many conditions as yet undetermined, 
that it is impossible to recommend any, except as conditioned 
on certain probable, or possible, events. The amount of our net 
revenue, our relations to the State and City, the result of 
negotiations with the University of Louisiana, our acquisition 
of the St. Louis Hotel, and other matters not yet fully settled 
must modify the scope and details of any plan we may propose 
for our work. Therefore, whatever may now be laid before you 
by me is offered tentatively, and should be held subject to future 
modification according to the exigencies as they arise. Indeed, 
even if all of our data could be definitely given now, I would 
not hold it the part of wisdom to elaborate and adopt any 
scheme which should not be considered open to amendment, 
growth, and development. Festina lente is a safe motto in educa- 



31 

tional matters. Final success, more than present applause, is to 
be regarded. A cautious policy in practice, a flexible organiza- 
tion, and a waiting on events to manifest the most pressing 
needs in expansion, expenditure, and energetic action should 
be, for the present, our guiding rules of action. 

Nevertheless, we must remember also the importance of 
making a beginning, and the urgent demand for educational 
improvement in this city. We must not bury our talent, because 
we have but one. Whatever good we do is put out at interest. 
Only, we should take care that what we undertake is in the 
direct line of development 5 and, in order that it be not wasted, 
that it should be a part of the grand plan we propose as the 
consummation of our endeavor. In the meantime, it is not only 
wise but essential that we should have in mind a clear conception 
of this plan. We must perceive clearly the point at which we 
aim, outline a chart of our work, and frame an ideal toward 
which we shall continually strive. 

After we have decided what we wish to do and will try to 
attain, w^e can then decide what we are able to do, and go to 
work and do it, be it ever so little. 

In this view of the case it would not be appropriate now to 
submit to the Board a detailed scheme of courses of instruction, 
text books, rules of discipline, etc. Suffice it to say that these 
matters are under consideration by me, and, when the circum- 
stances demand, will be laid before the Board in matured form. 

In framing your plan of organization I beg leave to recall to 
you that the purpose of your institution is the higher education of 
our youth. It is our business not merely to open a university, 
but to collect within its walls a body of students to receive what 
we have to offer. In organizing, we must consider whom we 
organize for ; who constitute our clientelle. As I have defined 
higher education as embracing all above elementary instruction, 
it will be seen at once that it includes High School, Collegiate 
and University education. This is an extended line of instruc- 



32 

tion. Its students range from little boys to bearded men. 
Premising that those of the lowest grade are very numerous, 
and that the number of college students is limited, it must be 
added that, properly speaking, there is no such class of persons 
in Louisiana as University students. There is not a single youth 
pursuing within the borders of the State what can be justly 
called a University course. They have no opportunity to do so. 
The schools and colleges of the State do not educate such a class. 
It has yet to be created, and the atmosphere of culture in which 
it is possible for it to exist must be created likewise. It will be 
our province to aid in both tasks. 

It is an error to suppose that all we have to do is to make 
the offer of education to our young men, and that it will meet a 
hearty response. Most men desire knowledge, as they desire 
money — for what it will buy. It requires visible and tangible 
rewards to overcome the inertia of ignorance and indolence. 
The higher learning does not confer these, and hence it is 
neglected. In all the lower branches, in whatever leads to a 
practical remunerative career with the smallest amount of mental 
labor, we may expect sufficient numbers , and for these we 
should honestly iDrovide. If their aspirations are not high, 
nevertheless their aim is not ignoble. 

But it is impossible for a commonwealth to take position 
among truly enlightened States when its education does not rise 
above this level. And it need hardly be insisted on here, that 
the measure of enlightenment is the measure of strength. It has 
been evinced of late years, with a vengeance, that, " knowledge 
is power." To strive for the van is the only way not to be left 
far in the rear. We must have the enlightenment, and the eru- 
dition and scientific mastery which produce it. We must create 
that class who possess and transmit this body of knowledge 
which is the source of intellectual light. Those who pursue 
knowledge for its own sake, preferring it to wealth, or ease, or 
fame, are the chosen priesthood of learning. They are the 



33 

pioneers of science whose enterprise is to enlarge the domain of 
of human thought. They make illustrious the State or city to 
which they belong. They are few, but they should be sought 
out, and enrolled according to their vocation. 

But not only these but the able men who demand a fair 
wage in return for intellectual effort should be made to see that 
science is not a closed career to the strong and ambitious. It is 
hard to persuade such to endure the toil requisite to obtain a 
University education, because its rewards are so remote and con- 
tingent. It is so in Louisiana ; but it is the same in New England, 
and in Old England. There the difficulty is met by holding out 
scholarships, fellowships, or an assured professional career, as 
incentives. C^) Such are the only conditions on which young 
men can be found to accept this precious boon. If this be so in 
countries so much more highly favored, is it strange there 
should be no demand for University education in Louisiana? 

But the inquiry is pertinent, if there be no demand for Uni- 
versity education, what is the use of appointing a faculty of 
eminent men at large expense to impart it^ Why not wait until 
there is a demand ! The reply is obvious. It is the paradox of 
St. Patrick and the serpent, which had bargained to be let out of 
his prison-chest on " to-morrow.'' " To-morrow '' never comes. 
The demand will never arise for the education and the professors 
until tliese first create it. Knowledge, like olives, is an acquired 
taste. Ignorance crawls on its belly, and never looks up. You 
have to lift it up, and set its face toward the light. Our Chris- 
tian missionaries might as well wait for " a call *' from the hea- 
then, as the friends of education for the demand for University 
education. Wlieu Mahomet proclaimed his mission as the pro- 
phet of Allali. his wife, his slave, and the boy, Ali, alone believed. 
If we set up our standard of higher education— of the highest 
education— they may gather slowly, but our youth will rally to 
it at last. If we wait for students to come knocking at our 



*Harvard pays $40,000 pev annum in this way. 



34 

gates, they will pass us by. True, this is their loss, but it is 
still more the loss of the community. His personal aggrandize- 
ment compensates the strong man devoted to selfish ends, but 
can the community afford to lose his energy and ability from the 
cause of the general welfare*? The conclusion is forced upon 
us that we must offer the higher education to our youth on terms 
that will be accepted. We must give a practical education to 
those who will accept no more. These will throng our halls. 
But to induce them to advance, and obtain the education which 
will enable them to serve their fellow man, as well as them- 
selves, we must hold out proper incentives. 

The question arises, what are these incentives'? Wealth and 
distinction are two of the strongest motives in the human breast. 
Scholars do not look for any large share of either, the love of 
knowledge, next to religion, being self-sufficing. But when 
the learned class are not held in the highest esteem, able men, 
as a rule, will not make it their profession. Napoleon's cynical 
epigram, "Savants and jackasses to the centre" — or, "to the 
rear," as we would say, gave brute force as the keynote of 
power. But it carried in it the seeds of defeat, and the doom 
of his dynasty. Von Moltke's schoolmasters mashed in the.shell 
of the Second Empire as if it were a bon-bon box. There will 
be no learned class in Louisiana until it is as respectable here 
as it now is in Massachusetts. Teachers should have an honor- 
able social position, and their leaders a fair share of dignity and 
intlnence. It is not climate alone, or the price of living, which 
keeps professors at the I^orth. It is because learning is more 
honored there. Sufficient salaries to keep professors above sor- 
did cares are needed to secure them social respectability. 

But it is not- sufficient to propose remote rewards to the 
young. You must appeal to immediate ideas and interests. 
You can seize on their imagination, and hold them to a pre- 
scribed line of labor by following the example of Europe and 
the Korth, and conferring on distinguished students honors and 



35 

applause, prizes, scholarships, fellowships and professional pro- 
motion. When young men discover that advancement comes, 
not by the back door of patronage, but through genuine scholar- 
ship, they will adopt right methods At "first, but few graduates 
can be expected, and progress must be slow ; but, with judicious 
management, the Tulane University may effect great results in 
this direction. To retain here the students now sent abroad, to 
increase the number seeking higher education, and especially 
University education, we must deserve the public favor. The 
means to do this have been already pointed out. Establish an 
institution at once solid and splendid, and it will soon have its 
full quota of students. 

Other Universities rely for their annual crop of students on 
certain tributary institutions, colleges, public high schools and 
private academies. We must, to a great extent, do likewise. 
But these have been so crippled and stricken down in Louisiana, 
that, after we have done all we can to foster and encourage 
them, we shall still have to rely principally upon the preliminary 
instruction within our own walls to provide a supply of Univer- 
sitv students. We shall have to build the edifice of hisfher 
education in l^ew Orleans from the bottom up. Taking up the 
work where the grammar schools leave it off, we must carry it 
as far as we can persuade our students to pursue it. It should 
begin at the beginning, be thorough in extent, and accurate in 
all its parts. 

The whole ground of the higher education is to be covered 
by our instruction. "Education," according to the Prussian 
ideal, '' is the harmonious and equable evolution of human char- 
acter;" and, as elaborated by Stein, — "by a method based on 
the nature of the mind, every power of the soul to be unfolded* 
every crude principle of life stirred up and nourished, all one- 
sided culture avoided.'' How this education shall be organized 
and distributed is a most important question, and deserves your 
careful consideration. 



36 

Two courses are open to us. We may follow, with modifi- 
cations, some model more or less analogous in circumstances to 
our own, or we may adopt a new plan altogether. The former 
course is the easier, and that most generally pursued. The 
objection is, that there is no case so near our own as to warrant 
us in copying it. No one has less love of innovation for its own 
sake than myself 5 but, as we are fortunately bound down by no 
traditions or preariangements, we are permitted to adapt our 
plan to our work with logical precision. 

In considering the division of the higher instruction into 
appropriate fields of labor, it is well to look at what has been done 
by other Universities, and the tendency of their methods, Take 
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Washington and Ijee, any of our older 
institutions, and you will find that they had their origin in 
what would now be denominated academies. 

A brief survey of the mode of their growth and develop- 
ment may aid us in giving shape to our own. For a long time 
their improvement was chiefly by extending the course of studies, 
and giving more Latin, Greek and Mathematics. Then scien- 
tific studies were added. The educational edifice was raised by 
putting story above story. But as four y^ars apparently fixed 
the immutable limit of the college course, it was found neces- 
sary, as new studies were added at the top of the curriculum, to 
cut off so^ie others at the bottom. This was effected by more 
stringent requirements for admission, which devolved the former 
work of the lower college classes on the preparatory high 
schools. Still the general purposes of the institution remained 
disciplinary, and it was properly a college in spirit and tendency, 
as well as in name. In the last quarter of a century immense 
contributions have been made to the wealth of these colleges. 
Scientific annexes of more or less scope have been joined to the 
academic departments, university studies and methods have 
been introduced in the upper clases ; and post-graduate courses 
have supplemented the fragmentary teaching of the regular cur- 



37 

riculum. As many of the additioDS have been determined by 
individual bias rather than by logical necessity, the result is 
often a very composite structure. The overgrown college has 
become a University, in which studies and methods are curi- 
ously dovetailed and the true lines of demarcation are confused, 
blended and concealed. To discover the leal division between 
University and Collegiate instruction is the first step toward or- 
ganization. It is decided by the spirit and methods of the teach- 
ing more than by the studies pursued, as I shall have occasion 
to show further on. Here, it is enough to say, in general, that 
the end of collegiate teaching is a liberal education, and that it 
is attained by a circle of studies harmoniously adjusted to 
develope the faculties and pursued chiefly with a disciplinary 
purpose. University education is for a scientific purpose ; that 
the student may know, but especially that he may think, and 
think for himself. Its aim is to induce him to look for truth by no 
artificial or reflected illumination, but in the single light of his 
own intellect. It is to make original, independent thinkers. 

Now, an investigation of the courses of study pursued in 
our best American Universities discloses the fact that, up to the 
end of Sophomore year, or somewhat beyond it, the branches 
studied are generally obligatory and enforced for disciplinary 
purposes. After that point, entire or partial election of studies 
is allowed, and the instruction assumes the university tone and 
character. At the close of Senior year Baccalaureate degrees 
are given 5 but confession is made that the University course is 
incomplete, by the offer of post-graduate courses with higher 
academic degrees. It is thus evident that the University edu- 
cation is split in twain, and that the present arrangements are 
arbitrary and artificial, owing to historical causes. 

Our newer University foundations, looking to greater flexi- 
bility, have adopted, in great measure, the German University 
system with its elective studies and instruction by lectures; 
though some have simply multiplied the number of curriculums. 



38 

with a relaxation of discipline. They have, however, ignored 
the essential feature of thorough preparation and rigid examina- 
tion required for competition for degrees in the German Univer- 
sities. Collegiate work is performed with university methods, 
by students untrained, and, therefore, unfit for this kind and 
degree of education. To this the Johns-Hopkins University, for 
one, is an honorable exception, discriminating sharply between 
university and collegiate students. Most otthe others offer the 
same anomalies as the older universities, in mingling col- 
legiate and university studies and methods, and in partial post- 
graduate courses. 

In pointing* out these educational solecisms, I trust no one 
will infer that any disparagement is meant of our greater or less 
institutions of learning. Good work has been done by them, and can 
be done under any system, however illogical, by able men, such 
as their faculties contain. But we may be permitted to profit 
by their defects, as well as by their example. 

Looking to other lands, we find that the English Public 
Schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Eugby, etc., are endowed foun- 
dations, which do the work of the high school and college com- 
bined. With somewhat limited scope, they give very thorough 
training, within the bounds set, for the Universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge. These latter ancient and magnificent establish- 
ments bestow a culture at once broad and harmonious. If this 
culture is extensive, rather than intensive, as has been often 
suggested, and less stimulating than that of the German Univer- 
sities to originality in thought and research, yet it is admirably 
adapted to the needs of the upper classes of English society. 
The work at Oxford and Cambridge is University work. The 
line which divides it from the collegiate training of the Public 
Schools is a real line. Below it, is disciplinary, dogmatic teach- 
ing ; above it, the higher culture. 

Matthew Arnold, who has thought and written so much, 
and so well on culture in general, and on University education 



39 

in particular, says : tlie University " ought to provide facilities, 
after the general education is finished, for the young man to go 
on in the line where his special aptitudes lead him, \ye it that of 
languages and literature, of mathematics, of the natural sciences, 
of the application of these sciences, or any other line, and follow 
the studies of this line systematically, under first rate teaching.-' 
He says further : " The idea of a University is, as I have already 
said, that of an institution not only offering to young men 
facilities for graduating in that line of study to which their 
aptitudes direct them, but offering to them also, facilities for 
following that line of studies systematically under first- rate 
instruction. This second function is of incalculable importance, 
of far greater importance even than the first. It is impossible 
to overvalue the importance to a young man of being brought 
in contact with a first-rate teacher of his matter of study, and of 
getting from him a clear notion of what the sj'Stematic study of 
it means.'' It will be seen that this conception of University 
education draws it into narrower channels than the preceding 
general education. Still it lays stress on a most important 
point; the i30wer of a man in teaching. A man is more than a 
book or a library, more than a method or a system, more than 
any thing else in University Education, which is a study of a 
few things systematically pursued, in which the student relies 
on the inspiration, not the authority of the teacher. 

But if we would see the distinction sharply drawn between 
the general liberal education of the college and the more intensive 
development of a man by university methods we must go to that 
country where education has been studied as a science. In 
Germany, the gymnasium, which answers to our college, has its 
own sphere ; and the university a different one. The university 
instruction is not simply more of the same sort. There is a line 
broad and deep between the spirit and aim of the two. The 
student leaving the one for the other passes into a moie raritied 
atmosphere. He breathes more freely. He is a man. No 



40 

longer leaning on authority, he bids farewell to the dogmatism 
which is a necessary element of collegiate instruction, and 
enters the arena of free investigation and independent thought 
as the comrade and critic of his professor. 

The eminent Yon Sybel says : " The chief aim of our uni. 
versity education is to give to the student th'e method of his 
science, thus enabling him not perhaps to become a savant, but 
to follow any future calling with scientific method and scientific 
energy. He is to learn, above everything, what science means, 
how any work is done scientifically, what is meant by scientific 
creative power. * "*" Whatever may be his calling in after 
life, during his academical years he is to be a disciple of science 
and nothing else, because the best preparation for every calling 
i*s scientific maturit3^ suppleness and independence of thought." 
He adds, " The work begun in the gymnasium is continued at 
the university, only not as in the English colleges, on a more 
extensive scale, but from a higHer standpoint." " The universi- 
ties are the homes of creative science, scientific criticism, literarj^ 
progress; their teachers are the organs of an autonomous scien- 
tific spirit 5 their scholars aie to be educated to the power of 
mental concentration and mental independence.". Von Sybel, 
proclaiming mental freedom as the outcome of this education, 
says of the student: " Whatever course he may pursue in after 
life, whether he be liberal or conservative, reactionary or pro- 
gressive, orthodox or heretical, — whatever, in fact, he may be, 
the essential point is this : that he is w^hat he is, not from any 
mere force of habit acquired during his youth, not from any 
indistinct sentiment or traditionary obedience i to established 
authorities, but from scientific conviction, critical examination, 
independent self-determination. Then and only then he can be 
accounted among the efficient members of his profession, the 
representative men of his party, the working powers of his 
church, and the ornaments of his nation • then and only then he 



41 

will belong to the true aristocracy of mind, to the men of real 
modern culture." * 

These eloquent and inspiring words of Von Sybel bring 
before you in authoritative form the high ideal of university edu- 
cation held up in Germany, and separate it from the training of 
the gymnasium. The division is a logical one; and the instruc- 
tion is carried on in distinct institutions and with different 
modes of teaching. The superior education is carried on from 
the elementary schools to the fruition of a liberal education 
either in the gymnasium or classical school, the real-schule or 
scientific school, or the pro-gymnasiuui, which combines the 
two. The student then transfers himself to the university, and 
finishes his education. 

With these examples to guide us, I think we may now pro- 
ceed to distribute our work safely and intelligently. It embraces 
the whole of the higher education, and I propose, following the 
analogy of German education, to divide it between a College 
and a University. Let our University do true univemty work, 
in the spirit and by the methods already suggested. If its ten- 
dency is practical, not purely abstract ; American, not German ; 
and is for the mental illumination and physical welfare of man, 
instead of toward more subtle conceptions and purposes, it is 
because we desire to tread our own path, not as imitators, but 
as fellow-seekers of the truth. 

It will be the sphere of the College to receive the pupil at 
the threshold of the higher education and to carry him by regu- 
lar Siteps to those loftier levels where he can complete a general 
liberal education. Such an education is obtained by an equable 
and harmonious evolution of all the mental faculties and by a 
rounded development of mind and character. It affords, on the 
one hand, a solid basis for that subjective development known 
as culture and science, imparted in the university courses; and, 
on the other hand, an ample preparation for all spheres of prac- 

*Bureau of Education, Circular January, 1872, 



42 

tical activity, professional, technical and commercial. It is a 
fuller and better preparation than young men now receive in 
our colleges. Hence, the degree with which its completion 
should be rewarded would really raise the present general level 
of collegiate education. 

It will be observed that this College has assigned to it the 
functions now performed in England by the Public School, in 
Germany by the Gymnasium, and in this country by the High 
School and College. Let it differ from all, however, in a 
broader foundation. A judicious arrangement of equivalent 
parallel courses can be made, by which the student may follow a 
line of development specially adapted to his destined career. If 
not absolutely accurate in theory as means to the end proposed, 
yet these courses are more accurate than any other plan now in 
use. 

There should be no objection to this union of high-school 
and college in one organization, as their aim and purpose, their 
methods and discipline, and their subjects of study are essentially 
the same. They are properly continuous, not successive ; and 
the difference is of degree, not of kind. 

It is desirable, for the present at least, to designate our col- 
legiate institution as, ''The College of New Orleans," or "New 
Orleans City College." If hereafter some philanthropist shall 
deserve, by a suitable endowment, to have his name and memory 
associated with the college, or any of its chairs or departments, 
appropriate changes can be made. 

In Germany, the complete gymnasium, and the real school 
course also, occupies nine years, one year each in the three 
lower classes, and two years each in the three upper classes. To 
enter the lowest class scholars must be nine years old, be able to 
read their mother tongue, know the parts of speech, write legibly, 
know how to spell and write from dictation, know the four fund- 
amental rules of arithmetic, and be thoroughly conversant with 
the history of the Old and New Testament. 



43 

Our College courses could be made to accomplish as much 
in seven years. The omission of explicit religious instruction, 
occupying one-thirteenth of the entire curriculum, which we can 
leave to the family, would save nine-thirteenths (9-13) of a year; 
and, by raising the age of admission to eleven years, we may 
expect more rapid progress from the greater maturity of the stu- 
dents, and we may also assume the supeiior intellectual vivacity 
of our boys. Of course I say this in no spirit of invidious com- 
parison with the German pupils whose mental stamina and solid 
abilities I fully recognize. But I find that two whole years* 
wath from 9 to 10 hours per week in class, are spent on Latin 
grammar drill before the pupil is admitted to read Cornelius 
Nepos and the fables of Phaedrus, and three years are spent on 
Arithmetic. Such leisurely progress can only be due to the 
extreme youth of the boys. I conclude that, if we make 
the entrance examinations decently strict, we can complete the 
German gymnasium course in seven years. 

The classes might be graded as First. Second, etc.; but, at 
the risk of some awkwardness of nomenclature, I regard the advan- 
tages of distinctive, well-understood class names as being suffi- 
ciently important to warrant us In affixing them to each year of 
the course. I suggest the following names : 

1. Senior. 

2. Junior. 

3. Sophomore. 

4. Freshman. 

5. Sub-Freshman — Upper Form. 

6. Sub- Freshman — Lower Form. 

7. Preparatory. 

The lowest class is advisedly called Preparatory, as it 
includes a review and perfection of previous study to verify the 
foundations of the pupil's scholarship. 

When I said that our work embraced the whole ground of 
the higher education, T had in mind not only the extent to which 



44 

any particular student might carry his education in completing 
it, but the entire breadth of the field of human knowledge. No 
man can survey the realm of human knowledge, and comprehend 
the whole. ISTo man can know it all. No man need know it all 
The education of any man is an advance along certain lines of 
thought in certain areas of this wide domain. The courses of 
study afforded by institutions are but routes of travel, estab- 
lished according to their means and facilities, as railroad lines are 
run from point to point. Thus it is easy to see how a well con- 
ceived system would aid the wayfarer on the road to knowledge. 
For all practical purposes the realm of human knowledge 
may be distributed into the four following provinces : 

1. Philosophy and Letters. 

2. Philology. 

3. Mathematics. 

4. Natural Science. 

The branches included in each of these divisions exercise 
and train a different set of intellectual faculties, the development 
of all of which are requisite for that robust strength of mind and 
character, that masterful energy of intellect and soul, which may 
be called scientific culture. We cannot obtain a liberal educa- 
tion even, without some gymnastic practice and instruction in 
each of these great departments. Therefore, in any and every 
course of instruction each should be represented. 

We should carry on in our College eight equivalent courses 
of instruction, each covering seven years, and all leading to the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. By a proper arrangement of 
schedules, little or no double teaching would be required. Under 
present arrangements one of the chief difficulties is to retain the 
students at their books long enough to realize the benefits of a 
liberal education. The graduate of a high school, no matter 
how low its standard, conceives himself ready for the arena of 
practical life. It is hard to convince him or his father, .that any 
more education can help him in the battle of life. We hope to 



45 

show in this College convincing proofs that knowledge is power, 
and that education makes an efficient man, just as drill makes 
an expert soldier. I think you can rely on the following results 
from the plan of organization proposed. The low standard of 
admission will secure a large number of pupils. A rigid class 
system and consequent esprit de corps, together with the conti- 
nuity of the instruction and a definite goal within reach of rea- 
sonable effort, will retain a very large proportion of those stu- 
dents who now from various causes drop out of their classes. I 
think it not excessive to expect nearly or quite as manj^ gra- 
duates for the college, as we might ordinarily expect for a high 
school here. This would be a great gain for education in the 
way of attainment. Further, I think a far larger number of 
graduates of the college would enter and finish the Universitj' 
courses than can now be persuaded to pursue post-graduate 
courses, and this, too, would be a gain not only for higher edu- 
cation, but for the highest culture. When a senior now takes 
his baccalaureate degree he has tasted the Pierian spring of 
university instruction just enough to imagine he has his fill, 
and to regard a post-graduate course as a work of supereroga- 
tion. The calls of active life are urgent, and he turns away from 
a career, which, if entered upon sooner, he would have carried 
to completion. 

It is not my purpose to discuss at this time the details of 
the instruction of the College. There is one question, however, 
which exiDcrience and observation have settled in my mind. It 
is the failure of the optional, or *' Go-as-you-please " system of 
studies, as applied to boys, or mere college students. It 
is as gross a mistake as it would be to invest a crude and ignorant 
child with full civil and political rights. You offer the boy, or 
his almost equally ill-informed parent, a bill of fare in an un- 
known tongue, and he is as apt to order soup and tooth-picks as 
any more substantial meal. There has been an extensive and 
profound revision of opinion on this point of late years, and not 



46 

less in the South than elsewhere. The construction of a judi- 
cious course of study is one of the severest tests of pedagogic ex- 
perience and skill, in which the plausible is too often substituted 
for the practical. But in the optional (^or so-called elective) 
system, you convert what should be a science into a lottery, in 
which a boy, to all intents blind-folded, draws with the assur- 
ance of ten blanks to one j)rize. I remember at Washington 
College a new student from the West who wished to select as 
his curriculum, what he called '' the violin and mathematics," 
but more plainly put, the " fiddle and fractions." When I 
went to Baton Eouge I found 38 students in 28 classes. One boy 
had for studies arithmetic and Civil Government only, a (bourse 
which might be the correct one, if he was predestined to be 
Auditor of the State. I made him take the Mechanical Course, 
in which he has evinced superior ability. An additional objec- 
tion to the optional system is its greater cost. 

But while this optional system has been carried to a reductio 
ad absurdum, especially in the South, it has at least had a good 
effect in breaking up the hidebound course formerly in vogue. 
A certain quantum of Latin, Greek and Mathematics was 
administered in each case, as an educational panacea, with the 
undeviating strictness of Dr. Sangrado's treatment of bleeding 
and warm water. Mathematics and the humanities are excellent 
educational tools, well tested in disciplinary value, and finished 
and improved by the experience of ages. No better course of 
studies has been, or probably will be, devised, as a basis for 
education in the learned professions and the highest scientific 
pursuits. But there are functions of the human mind not 
reached by these studies, and there are other branches which 
possess disciplinary value and informing power. While we 
should not yield to idle clamor and reject the former, neither 
can we afford to neglect those sciences which train the powers 
of observation and open to the inquirer the whole realm of 
nature. 



47 

The true medium between narrowness and license is to avail 
ourselves of all that modern discussion has settled on these 
points. I feel that I am strictly in accord with the best lines of 
modern thought and methods in education when I recommend 
for the instruction in the college, parallel and equivalent courses 
of study, with prescribed branches, which have been found 
advisable by experience elsewhere. The following eight courses 
might be fixed on, as embracing a series varied enough to meet 
any reasonable wish. 

1st. Classical. 

2d. Mathematical. 

3d. Scientific. 

4th. Literary or Philosophical. 

5th. Business. 

6th. Industrial. 

7th. Sub-Legal. 

8th. Sub-Medical. 

These eight courses could be carried on at less expense than 
an optional school. Each branch w^ould be under the charge of 
the appropriate University Professor, and would be taught by 
himself and his assistants, when any were required. One mem- 
ber of the Faculty should be selected as Dean, to act as an 
assistant to the President, in the immediate administration and 
discipline of. the college, and especially of the lower classes. 
He should be a man of established reputation for scholarship, 
experience and administrative ability. 

There are some studies which should form a part of all the 
eight courses. These are : 

1. English, (including grammar, rhetoric, literature and 
elocution.) 

2. Ethics. 

3. Mathematics. 

4. Penmanship. 



48 



5. Drawing. 



6. Geography. 

7. Natural Science. 

8. Physiology and Hygiene. 

9. History. 

The following studies should occupy more or less space in 
some of the courses. 

10. Latin. 

11. Greek. 

12. French. 

13. German. 

14. Spanish. 

15. Chemistry. 

16. Physics. 

17. Mechanics. 

18. Animal and Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, 
(Biology.) 

19. Metaphysics and Logic. 

20. Political Science. 

1 am disposed also to recommend some of the simpler forms 
of gymnastics as obligatory, in the lower classes at least. 

The University Courses should consist of foui* groups of 
studies, besides the Medical and Law Courses, and should be 
designated as : 

1. Classical. 

2. Mathematical. 

3. Scientific. 

4. Literary and Philosophical. 

These should each lead to the degree of Master of Arts in 
two years and Doctor of Philosophy in three years. All degrees 
ought to be given, with or without honors, and a few distinctions 
might be awarded to the most excellent. The Administrators 
will observe that the courses and degrees recommended are few 
and simple, compared to the intricate elaboration of courses, 



49 

dei^nees and schedules in many institutions. It requires a 
I)edagogical expert even to understand this collegia,te ritualism, 
which tends to confusion, and serves no serious purpose. The 
plainer it all is, the better. 

I have in the beginning of this report asserted the duty of 
the Tulane University to assume and maintain the primacy and 
leadership of public education in this State, to which it has been 
set apart by a manifest destiny. I also called your attention to 
the essential unity of our educational system and the mutual 
interdependence of every grade and agency of education. Since 
my first arrival in the State I have tried to impress this on the 
public mind. There is no lack more profoundly felt and 
deplored by the friends of education in Louisiana than the want 
of a Normal School for our Public School teachers. Before 
seeking a remedy, we should determine exactly what the 
grievance is. In Louisiana tHe two chief troubles in getting 
good teachers for the public scl tools are the inadequate salaries 
and the stupidity and callous consciences of the officials who 
appoint for favor, not merit. The Census gives Louisiana a bad 
showing for illiteracy; but, in spite of this, I venture to 
assert that no State in the Union contains a larger number of 
really cultivated and accomplished ladies anxious to teach for 
the most modest pittance. Left poverty-stricken by the war, 
school teaching is the most acceptable resort to this large class 
of peisons. Their gentle associations and intense sympathies 
adapt them admirably for this function. Well qualified in all 
other respects, they have one radical defect. They do not know 
how to teach. It is not, however, an art difficult to acquire, or 
requiring much time and labor when undertaken by an educated 
person. In a report as President of the State University, I used 
the following language : 

" Norma] schools have been brought into some disrepute among 
the better class of educators, because too many of them attempt a task 
at ouce useless and impossible. They try to teach methods to people 



50 

wlio know nothing else. They undertake to tit uneducated people to 
give instruction- to others. 

" Good methods are of immense value to any teacher ; but brains 
and knowledge are of more importance still. The blind cannot lead 
the blind, even when a lamp is furnished to guide their feet. Mere 
methods resemble a system of dry aqueducts and empty conduits, 
which irrigate nothing. It is only when fullness of knowledge, like 
a fountain of living waters, pours and pulsates through them, that 
the desert blossoms as a garden, and bud and fruit crown the verdure 
around." 

I am fortified in this position by the high authority of Prof. 
Huxley, who says ou a cognate point : 

" There are a great many people who imagine that elementary 
teaching might be properly carried out by teachers provided with only 
elementary knowledge. Let me assure you that that is the profoundest 
mistake in the world. There is nothing so difficult to do as to write a 
good elementary book, and there is nobody so hard to teach properly 
and well as people who know nothing about a subject ; and I will tell 
you why. If I address an audience of persons who are occupied in the 
same line of work as myself, 1 can assume that they know a vast deal, 
and that they can find out the blunders I make. If they don't, it is 
their fault and not mine; but when I appear before a body of people 
who know nothing about the matter, w^lio take for gospel whatever I 
say, surely it becomes needful that I consider what I say, make sure 
that it will bear examination, and that I do not impose upon the credu- 
lity of those w^ho have faith in me. In the second place, it involves 
that difficult process of knowing what you know so well that you can 
talk about it as you can talk about your ordinary business. A man can 
always talk about his own business. He can always make it plain ; 
but if his knowledge is hearsay he is afraid to go beyond whar he has 
recollected and put it before those that are ignorant in such a shape 
that they shall comi)reliend it. That is why, to be a good elementary 
teacher, to teach the elements of any subject, requires most careful con- 
sideration if you are a master of the subject; and if you are not a mavS- 
ter of it, it is iieedful you should familiarize yourself with so much as 
you are called upon to teach — soak yourself in it, so to speak — until 
you know it as a part of your daily life and daily knowledge, and then 
you will be able to teach anybody. That is what I mean by practical 
teachers, and although the deficiency has been remedied to a large 
extent, I think it is one which has long existed, and which has 
existed from no fault of those who undertook to teach, but because 
until within the last score of years it absolutely was not possible for 
anj'One in a great many branches of science, whatever his desire might 
be, to get instruction which would enable him to be a good teacher of 



51 

elementary things. All that i.s being- rapidly altered, and T hope will 
soon become a thing of the past." 

The point I make is this, that, having already a large class 
of mature women, and I may add men, fully qualified as school 
teachers, except in the single matter of proper educational or 
pedagogical methods, it is better to instruct this class of 
persons in Pedagogics or Didactics, thus fully equipping them, 
than it is to attempt to create an equally effective corps of teach- 
ers from the raw mateiial, by training boys and girls in the 
rudiments of knowledge, and adding Normal instruction to this. 
I respectfully submit that it is not a proper function of a Normal 
School to teach the rudiments as such ; but, if it were, it is 
impossible here. The Peabody Fund has withdrawn its aid. 
The State does nothing ; j)robably can do nothing now. The 
Legislature refused the offer of the State University to provide 
this instruction at a very small cost — $3000 per annum. The 
Tulane University is the only agency available to this end, and 
can, with the other facilities it will possess, do this work with 
the expenditure of the above named sum. I do not see how 
this amount could be more usefully employed. That sum would 
supply the instruction in Didactics ; and all else, libraries, 
museums, laboratories and lecture halls could be brought into 
requisition with little or no extra cost. The greatest advantage, 
however, to these seekers for knowledge would come from the 
atmosphere of culture of a great University and from the wise 
suggestiveness and inspiring intellectuality of professors who 
never feel so deeply the magnitude of their vocation as when 
they are teachers of teachers. 

In almost all the better German Universities, lectures are 
given on Pedagogy. At Berlin, Vienna and Jena, six lectures 
per week, and at several others four, are given. These lectures 
embrace the History of education, Scientific principles of educa- 
ting the child, School discipline, Methods of instruction, School 
legislation, School hygiene, School architecture, Ancient and 



Modern languages, Comparative philology, Metaphysics, and 
Logic. 

While we could thus, at small expense, establish a Normal 
College, and carry Mr. Tulane's bounty to one of the most deserv- 
ing classes of our community, and eventually indirectly to all, 
we would be building ourselves upon the affections of those who 
are the most efficient friends of every educational institution — 
the teachers of the land. Moreover, the strength of an insti- 
tution is in its alumni, and these come only with lapse of years, 
unless, by the adoption of some such expedient, a body of quasi 
alumni can be created. 

The instruction under the system sketched out above would 
thus be distributed between a College with seven (7) classes and 
eight (8) courses of study, a University with three classes and 
four courses of study, and an Adjunct Normal College, which I 
propose should be developed tentatively, and according to our 
ability to reach the teaching class. One faculty will suffice for 
the conduct of the instruction of all these departments. It 
should consist of Professors and Assistant Professors, it would 
be necessary also to employ a few^ instructors, who would not 
have seats in the Faculty. In addition to the scholastic instruc- 
tion thus provided, a course of 100, or more, public lectures by 
eminent men should be given. An appropriation of $5000 would 
be necessary to carry this out. They would be in aid of the 
regular instruction, as well as for the benefit of the public. 

In case a union is made with the University of Louisiana, 
I recommend that 13000 be appropriated to increase the salaries 
of the Law Professors, witli the hope that it will lead to a reduc- 
tion of the fees, so that more of our young men can avail them. 
selves of the benefits of the institution. It is proposed that some 
of the courses of lectures shall be given with refeience to the 
needs of this department. 

The following Faculty is recommended for appointment as 



53 

rapidly as proper persons can be found to fill each chair, in case 
our means prove sufficient. The amount considered adequate as 
salary is attached to each chair. 

The Faculty should be divided into four groups or sub- 
faculties, each with a chairman, according to the four University 

COURSE OF PHILOSOPHY AND LETTERS. \ j 

1. Chairman. The President. Professor of Political \ 

Science and History $5,000 

2. Professor. Rhetoric, Ethics and Elements of Mental 

Science, Logic and English Literature 2,000 

3. Assistant Professor, History and English 1,200 

$8,200 

It is to be noted that the instruction in this course will be 
largely supplemented by the lecturers mentioned. The instruc- 
tion in Metaphysics can be provided for the most part in this 
way. Help may also be obtained from the Law School. 

II. 
CLASSICAL COURSE. (PHILOLOGY.) 

1. Chairman. Professor of Philology and English 

Language $4,000 

2. Professor of Latin and Roman History 3,000 

3. Professor of Greek and Grecian History 2,000 

4. Professor of French 2,000 

5. Professor of German 2,000 

6. Assistant Professor of Spanish 1,200 

7. Assistant Professor of Latin and Greek 1,200 



$15,400 



54 

III. 
MATHEMATICAL COURSE. 

1. Chairman. Professor of Analytical Mechanics. 

(Mixed Mathematics or Mathematico-physical ^ 

Science, including Mathematical Theory, Heat, 

Light, Physical Astronomy, etc. ) $4,000 

2. Professor of Physics (or Natural and Experimental 

Philosophy).... 2,000 

3. Professor of Mathematics 2,000 

4. Professor of Engineering, (Civil, Dynamic and 

Hydraulic) 2,000 

5. Professor of Drawing and Design.. 2,000 

6. Assistant Professor of Mathematics 1,200 

7 . Assistant Professor of Penmanship and Book-keeping 1,200 

$14,400 
This combined course of Physics and Mathematics repre- 
sents that province of knowledge in which the greatest and most 
rapid strides have been made in late years and may be expected 
in the future. On its proper organization and deve'lopment will 
probably depend our opportunity for a splendid reputation in 
research and discovery. Closely connected with it in its impor- 
tance and scientific aspects is : 

IV. 
COURSE IN NATURAL SCIENCE. 

1. Chairman. Professor of Chemistry.. $4,000 

2. Professor of Geology, Mineralogy, and Physical 

Geography 2,000 

3. Protessor of Animal and Vegetable Anatomy and 

Physiology (special) 1,000 

4. Professor of Hygiene and Human Physiology, 

(special) 1,000 

$8,000 



55 

RESUME OF COST OF INSTRUCTION. 

Course I $ 8,200 

Course II 15,400 

Course III 14,400 

Course lY 8,000 

S46,000 

Salary of Dean 1,000 

Lectures 5,000 

Normal School 3,000 

Law School 3,000 

$58,000 



An Academic Senate, composed of the President and Pro- 
fessors, should have charge of the discipline and instruction, 
each of its own department of the University, except that the 
Medical Department should maintain its present government 
and relations to the University. 

Professors should be elected during good behavior and 
should only be removed for cause. Assistants should be elected 
for two years, when their employment should cease unless 
re-elected. 

In addition to his salary, I recommend that a stated sum be 
added to each professor's salary for each year of his service : 
$50 for his second year, $100 for his third year, $150 for 
his fourth year, etc, and that this be put to his credit, to be paid 
at death or resignation or paid to him, as may be thought best. 
For eleven years' service a professor would have an increase of 
salary of $500. These additions of salaries, known as " fogies " 
are quite usual in military and naval establishments and acade- 
mies, and are strong incentives to faithful service. 

Besides the cost of instruction, an estimate is submitted for 
annual expenditures for the administration as follows : 



56 

Treasurer (in charge of real estate) $2,500 

Secretary and Librarian 2,000 

Janitor (or Proctor) 1,000 

Servants 1,000 

Clerk-hire .. 1,000 



$7,500 



Gas, Heating, Insurance, etc $1,000 

Advertising, Postage, Stationery, etc 1,500 

Printing lectures, etc = 2,000 

$4,500 



This will give as the cost of administration $12,000, which 
added to $58,000, would make the total cost of the University 
$70,000 per annum. If it were possible to raise the $2000 and 
$1000 salaries to $2500 and $1500 respectively ; to make Spanish 
a 12500 Professorship, at a total cost additional of $5800, it 
would add greatly to the efficiency of the faculty. 

To meet this annual expenditure we have income from : 

Eeal Estate, say $36,000 

Bonds and Stocks (Mr. Tulane's promise) 19,000 

Interest on $125,000 7,500 



$62,500 



State Appropriation. University of Louisiana ... ..$10,000 

Fees, 250 pay students, at $50 12,500 

$22,500 
Total Income '. $85,000 



From this deduct for taxes, say $10,000 



$75,000 
If the $5800 additional be granted it would raise the outlay 

to $75,800 per annum, with an annual increase of S1200 for fogies 

to professors and permanent officers. 



57 

By October 15th, the begiuuiag of aa academic year, our 
accumulated fuud will amount to over $30,000. 

I recommend that this be appropriated as follows : 

Sugar Laboratory $ 5,000 

Chemical do 5,000 

Physical do 5,000 

Workshop, Mechanical and Engineering 5,000 

Natural Science, Museum, etc 5,000 

Library, (books) 5,000 



$30,000 



And that whatever funds remain, be appropriated to the 
Library account. 

Workmen must have their workshops and tools. Professors 
must have theirs, which are books, apparatus, and laboratories. 
The above appropriation for books will only make a beginning. 
$15,000 more will be needed to put the laboratories on a 
thoroughly respectable footing, and $25,000 or $30,000 for the 
museums, cabinets, etc.; but this expenditure may be delayed 
and distributed over some years. 

There should be no waste for fanciful display, but no stint 
for the essential or useful. No true economist refuses labor- 
saving machines and the best appliances to skilled workmen 
and experts. Yet every day professors are thus crippled by 
bad management. 

The industrial feature suggested in the courses of study 
should be represented by a workshop, and a Professor of 
Mechanical Engineering. The teaching should embrace both 
the theory and practice of wood and metal working, turning, 
and the kindred arts in class room, with the use of tools in 
the workshop. In addition, a Chair of Civil and Hydraulic 
Engineering should be established with special reference to the 
topography and water-ways of Louisiana, and its industries. A 
thorough knowledge of Drawing, the universal sign language of 



68 

science, underlies all industrial training, and indeed should be 
imparted to every student who seeks a liberal education. 

There are certain words in Mr. Tulane's act of donation 
which ^ I do not doubt, are to his Administrators, as they are to 
me, a source of profound satisfaction. They are those words 
which command that his gifts shall be used for educational 
development unfettered by sectarianism, but in harmony with 
the great fundamental principles of Christian truth contained in 
the Holy Scriptures. To say that in its spirit it shall be 
Christian, but not sectarian, is a limitation which enlarges ; a 
restriction which amplifies and sets free. It invokes the power 
of godliness without respect to the form thereof. It compels 
tolerance to the intolerant. It realizes the vision of Peter in the 
house of Simon the tanner, and finds in the parable of the Good 
Samaritan the broad basis of its charity. 

I do not know that the republic of letters is prepared to 
admit a primate among American educators ; but it will be per- 
mitted to a grateful disciple so to regard his venerated precep- 
tor, the Reverend Noah Porter, President of Yale College, and 
to speak in the words of his master. Not better than in his elo- 
quent language can be expressed the standpoint of the Chris- 
tian University in America at this day. This is what he says : 

"Thatscience has m^ade extraordinary advances in the last fifty years, 
all of us know. Many of the sciences of Nature which fifty years since 
were in feeble infancy, have grown into vigorous manhood. Not a few 
of these sciences have discerned new facts, established new laws and 
evolved new methods, so far as almost to have parted with their 
identity. But not one nor all together have made nature less depend- 
ent on creative thought and goodness. Not one nor all together have 
made Atheism intellectually more attractive, or the denial of Provi- 
dence more rational, or the rejection of prayer more satisfactory. That 
science has become more theological by discussing these deep-lying, 
wide-reaching questions, proves simply that the scientist is enlarging 
his horizon. We may pardon him if he reasons very badly upon these 
subjects, if he will condescend to reason upon them at all. It is, per- 
haps, better that a man should be an Atheist in Theology than never 
to ask whether there is a God ; better to deny prayer and providence, 
than sneeringly to despise the questions which pertain to both. It is 



59 

ft matter of congratulation that scientists of every school now seek after 
God, if haply they may find Him. That some philosophers should 
doubt and others should deny, need not disturb us so long as many 
believe and worship, and those who do neither cannot be content to 
leave these questions alone. 

" If we turn in another direction, we find that the faith of multi- 
tudes of cultured men in the Christian spirit and the Christian life was 
never so profound and so distinctly professed as at present. The 
consciences of multitudes who are asking one another, without 
being able to answer. What think ye of Christ? do yet declare 
with a pathetic earnestness never known before, Let the same 
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. The Christian 
type of courtesy and self-sacrifice is more and more generally 
accepted as the ideal of human exceHence and the law of human duty. 
It is not too much to hope that many of those who are ready to believe 
in Christ only as a power, will very soon be ready to believe in Christ 
as a person, and the ethical and religious culture which has been 
inspired in the school which Christ has founded and nurtured, shall 
turn back with tearful penitence and a loving heart to render to the 
Master the love and homage which are His by right. 

" If there be a few who dream that Christ as a person must soon 
cease to be honored even in Christian temples, there are those who 
know that Christ as a power never wrought with such energy or so 
demonstrated His supremacy as at this moment, among all the shrines 
of idolatry and superstition. Meanwhile the Living Church, which 
contains many scholars and philosophers of foremost eminence and 
authority, holds fast to its faith that the power of Christ to subdue all 
things to Himself lies in Christ's personality as the manifested Father 
and the glorified Son of Man. 

" It is for the church of Christ to ask itself whether it is not largely 
responsible for this modern unbelief; whether its sectarian strifes, its 
narrow dogmatism, its exclusive pretensions, its suspicion of culture, 
its spectacular shows ; whether its cant, its formalism, its selfishness, 
its denunciation of science, and its manifold uncharities, have not 
largely contributed to this cultured rejection of the supernatural Christ 
and the scientific denial of God. 

" It is for the Christian colleges and the men whom they train to 
consider and decide, whether they shall not lead the way to profounder 
views of Christian science, and wider conceptions of Christian culture 
and freer views of Christian Ifellowship. If there is to be a Church of 
the Future, such as there must and will be, if Christ is to achieve Hi» 
destined triumph, a church free from sectarian strifes and narrow 
dogmatisms, in which the Scriptures shall be interpreted by the 
advancing science and the developed culture that are to be ; in which 
Eeal shall be refined by knowledge, and knowledge shall kindle zeal, 
then Christian seats of learning must be foremost in preparing the 
way of the Lord." 



60 

I cannot refrain from addino- to this authoritative assertion 
of the place of a Christian University in our plan of civiliza- 
tion, a few utterances of this wise Christian leader : 

"A complete education involves the use of religious motives and 
influences, and this whether we regard education as a training of the 
character or of the intellect. Education cannot be worthily conceived 
unless it respects the character. The well-trained or perfected man is 
a higher result to aim at than the accomplished logician, the smooth- 
voiced orator, the many-tongued linguist, the sagacious scientist, and 
the inspired poet. So thought the noblest of the ancients, interpreting 
the suggestions of nature, and tlie wisest of the moderns, taught by 
Christian truth and Christian example. The ideally perfect man is 
also universally recognized, as reverent and devout, iiumble an<l self- 
forgetting before the divine in himself and tlie universe, and reaching 
forward by faith into the unseen and future life. If God educates the 
soul for immortality by the discipline of its earthly career, it should be 
no mean part of the aim of every truly liberal university to inspire 
its pui)ils with the highest Christian aims, and to instruct them to 
manifest these aims in an upright and attractive life." 

■5^ -H- * * ¥: * 

" Would we educate a generation mighty in erudition, honest and 
untiring in research, candid and comprehensive in judgment, sagacious 
in conjecture, cogent in reasoning, fair in statement, fervid in elo- 
quence, lofty in imagination, inspired by and inspiring to that intel- 
lectual enthusiasm, without which there is no true intellectual great- 
ness, we must educate that generation in the spirit and by the 
principles of the Christian faith. In science and letters godliness has 
the promise of the life which now is as well as of the life to come. All 
critics are forward to assert in a general way that Christianity has been 
the mighty quickener of human thought and feeling. We ought never 
to forget that much of what it has done it has achieved by leavening 
the higher education of successiv^e generations. It may be true that if 
what we call Christian civilization is to continue, and the peculiar and 
threatening evils of modern society are to be ov^ercome, not only 
Christian churches, but Christian universities must continue to exist. 

and both must become more positively Christian in their influence." 

* * * * * -x 

" Surely it is not too much to claim that the great verities of Faith 
concerning God and duty and Christ and the immortal life, may be 
received as so far flxed as to be the basis of positive teaching in the 
education of youth. Though not established by what is technically 
called the verified experiments of science, they are assumed as the 
foundation of all that is valuable in human existence — the authority of 
1^-^ — the security of property — the sacredness of home — the inviola- 
bility of honor — the obligation of truth — the tenderness of affection 



61 

and nobleness of self-sacrifice, and the triumphs of love and faith over 
death. Christian civilization has had too long and too varied a history 
in the past not to testify to some fixed foundation of truth. Christian 
literature and Christian art have blossomed into flower and ripened 
into fruit for too many generations to leave room to doubt that Christ 
is indeed the tree of life." 



" So far as the college is true to the lessons of science and culture, so 
far will it be anti-sectarian in its teachings and its spirit. The lessons 
of philosophy, the teachings of history and the amenities of culture all 
lift the Christian scholar above the narrowing influences of denomi- 
national divisions and the petty excitements of sectarian or personal 
quarrels, and open his heart to a more enlarged (jhristian charity. 
These healthful influences are sometimes resisted, and the college 
becomes a school of narrow judgments and a nursery of bitter and 
unchristian sectarianism. But these are not the legitimate fruits of 
genuine Christian culture. The tendencies of all sound learning and 
earnest thinking are in the direction of a more liberal charity and of a 
closer union between Christian believers. To these influences all 
Christian colleges must yield, if indeed, they are not foremost in urg- 
ing them forward. It may be reserved for them to contribute most effi- 
ciently to the restoration of unity to the Christian church. So far as 
the church itself is concerned, whatever may have been true in thej^ast, 
the last thing which it needs to fear at present is that the Christian 
colleges of this country will intensify the sectarian spirit." 

Such views and positions as these should repel none, but 
constrain all men to respect, if not to adopt the faith which 
inspires them. 

If the University we hope to establish is guided by these 
principles, which animate its founder, as well as the eminent 
educator whom I have so extensively quoted, its future will be 
radiant with the sunlight of Christian charity and its onward 
progress will keep equal pace with the forward movement of 
intellect, the mind of God working in the mind of man. 

While we should endeavor to carry out the plan set forth in 
this paper at as early a day as may be practicable, I should 
regret to see its unity impaired or imperiled by premature or 
hasty action. The liberality of our Founder has approved the 
deliberation of your course heretofore by large additions to his 



62 

first endowmeat, and, feeling as he does, that he and you are 
building for all tiniQ, I feel confident that he will not disapprove 
of any delay which may be necessary to lay the foundations 
broad and deep. 

Having secured onr fund, and obtained by proper legisla- 
tive action the guarantees which would be necessary for our 
safety in the measures proposed by me with regard to the Uni- 
versity of Louisiana and the St. Louis Hotel, we can then use 
all our resources with full effect. 

In the coming season we should accumulate the most neces- 
sary apparatus, and make provision for obtaining such other as 
requires some years to manufacture. The appointment of at 
least one scientific professor is requisite to accomplish this. We 
could also lay the foundation of a library. I myself could per- 
form the greater part of this duty. 

I think a series of public lectures could be given next 
winter as an initial course, which would prove of great public 
benefit ; and these might be so framed as to serve the purpose 
of ]!^ormal instruction sketched out in the foregoing paper. An 
appropriation of $7000 would be ample for this purpose. Here- 
after it would be less costly. 

I cannot, at this time, consistently urge upon the Board of 
Administrators to do more than this, during the coming win- 
ter, though I shall be happy to carry out their instructions, 
whenever they see that more can be effected. 

If you can carry to consummation some such plan of a great 
University, as I have had the honor to submit to you, his 
Administrators will share with Mr. Tulane in the glory of a 
foundation which will prove as far reaching as it is benificent. 
If unhappily your efforts shall be circumscribed by a narrow 
public policy or other untoward events, your task will be 
humbler, and I can only commend to you to do, cheerfully, all 
the good you can with the means at your command, and hopefully 



63 

to attempt what is attainable, and yet consistent with our 
ultimate and grander design. Whatever we do, let it be well 
done ; and let it be written as the legend of our institution, as 
in the message to the Church of Thyatira : " I know thy works, 
and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy 
works ; and the last to be more than the first." 

Wm. Preston Johnston. 



INDEX. 



♦ •« 

PAGE 



Preliminary remarks, 

I.— Scope of work for Tnlane Board 2 

Mr. Tulaiie's intentions 2 

Include a University 2 

Cover all Higher Education 3 

Prussian Secondary Schools 3 

Definition of Higher Education 3 

Present duty to plan wisely and execute prudently 4 

Mr. Tulane's wisdom in selecting Higher Education for benefac- 
tion 4 

IT. — Relation of this University to the educational system of the 

State 5 

Our educational condition 6 

Unity of educational system 6 

Public Schools and University 6 

Primacy of the Tulane University 7 

Measures to assure it 8 

1. Free scholarships to State 8 

2. Free scholarships to City 9 

City High School 9 

3. Free Scholarships to Private Schools 9 

4. Industrial Education 9 

5. Public Lectures 10 

(i. Sugar Laboratory. 10 

III. — Concentration of resources •. 11 

Mr. Farrar's address 11 

Magnitude of modern endowments 12 

Cities the natural seats of universities 13 

New Orleans a proper site 14 

MeasurevS of concentration 14 

1. Union with University of Louisiana 14 

2. Purchase of St. Louis Hotel 15 

Absorption of City High School 16 



o. 



11 INDEX. 

PAGE 

IV. — Work of the University 16 

1. Higher education 1*6 

'2. Extension of knowledge by discovery 16 

Importance of able men 17 

3. Culture of the community 17 

Influence of a library 18 

Dearth of books here 18 

A good librarian 19 

Public lectures 19 

V. — The requisite agencies 20 

Business organization 20 

Treasurer .21 

Janitor 21 

Librarian and Secretary 21 

VI.— A. Faculty 21 

President 21 

Selection of faculty 22 

Influence of able men ._ 22 

Responsibility of President .23 

B, Rules for choosing a faculty 24 

1. Fitness the sole ground of choice 24 

Unselfishness 24 

Nepotism 24 

Catholicity 25 

Local and political influences.... 25 

2. In what fitness consists 26 

(a.) Integrity of character. .....26 

(b.) Ability.... .....;................ 26 

Scientific 27 

Didactic 28 

(c.) Prestige 28 

(d.) Adaptation 29 

3. Tests of fitness........ 29 

VII. — Present plans and policy tentative ....30 

Importance of making a beginning 31 

How to obtain students 31 . 

Apathy of public 32 

Knowledge is power 32 



INDEX. Ill 

PAGE 

Inducements to be offered -...SS 

Supply in education must precede demand 33 

What incentives are requisite 34 

Tributary institutions 35 

Range of our work 35 

Prussian Ideal of education 35 

VIII. — Organization and distribution of Higher Education 36 

A. — Historical development of Universities in America 36 

Distinction l)etween College and University work 36 

Our newer Universities 37 

English Schools and Universities 38 

Matthew Arnold's idea of a University 38 

A great man the chief factor in education 39 

Von Sybel's idea of the distinction between the German 

Gymnasium and University 39 

B. — Our work divided between a College and a University 40 

(a.) Sphere of the College 41 

Name suggested- 42 

Course In German Gymnasium 42 

Our Courses of seven years 43 

Names for classes 43 

Breadth of Higher Education 43 

Four Provinces of Knowledge 44 

College courses an*d degrees 44 

Advantages of our plan 45 

Optional system discussed 45 

Improvements In education 47 

The eight College Courses 47 

Dean of the College 47 

Studies of the College 47 

(b.) University courses and degrees 48 

(c.) A Normal School 49 

Teachers in Louisiana 49 

A radical defect and its remedy 49 

Prof. Huxley on elementary teaching 50 

Normal function of Tulane University 51 

Pedagogy In Germany 51 



IV INDEX. 

PAGE 

C. — yummary of organization 52 

Faculty ; groups and salaries 53 

Resume of cost of instruction : 55 

Academic Senate 55 

Tenure of office and compensation of professors 55 

Expenditures for administration 56 

Income 56 

Appropriations from accumulated fund 57 

Laboratories, Library, Workshop, etc 57 

IX. — University to be Christian but not sectarian 58 

President Porter's standpoint for a Christian University 58 

His views of Christian education 60 

Liberality of Christian culture 61 

Necessity for deliberate action 61 

Requisite action tliis year 62 

Our Legend 63 



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